Segmenting offshore wind farms for analysing cost reduction opportunities: a case of the North Sea region.

Renewable energy is a sustainable solution for reducing environmental impacts resulted from total energy production and consumption. The offshore wind energy as a clean energy choice of electricity production has been growing fast. There is a large amount of literature on the cost reduction strategies of offshore wind energy. In this study, the key cost drivers of offshore wind farms development are identified according to the content analysis of the literature. A segmentation approach to offshore wind farms is then proposed based on multiple factors including costs, spatial information, foundation type, the length of inter-array cables and the turbine manufacturers. This study focuses on 35 offshore wind farms located in the North Sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]