Most of the world’s offshore wind turbines are concentrated in two regions: the shallow coastal waters of northern Europe and the eastern seaboard of China. Together, these areas account for the vast majority of the 83 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity installed globally as of 2024. But the map is expanding quickly, with new projects appearing off the coasts of Taiwan, the United States, South Korea, and several other countries.
The Global Leaders
China is the dominant force in offshore wind, holding roughly half of all installed capacity worldwide. Its turbines cluster along the eastern coastline, particularly off the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong, where strong and consistent winds blow across relatively shallow continental shelf waters. China has led the world in new offshore installations for seven consecutive years.
The United Kingdom ranks second globally. Its offshore fleet is spread across the North Sea and Irish Sea, with massive projects off the coasts of Yorkshire, East Anglia, and Scotland. Germany, the Netherlands, and Taiwan round out the top five. In 2024, these five countries together accounted for 94% of all new offshore wind capacity added that year.
Other notable players include Denmark (a pioneer that built the first offshore wind farm in 1991), Belgium, France, and South Korea. Each of these countries has projects either operational or under construction in their coastal waters.
The North Sea: The World’s Offshore Wind Hub
No body of water has more offshore wind turbines than the North Sea. Its relatively shallow depths, strong winds, and proximity to some of the world’s largest electricity markets make it ideal. The UK’s Dogger Bank project, located about 130 kilometers off the northeast English coast, is one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world. The Hornsea projects, also off England’s east coast, form another massive cluster.
Germany’s turbines sit primarily in the North Sea as well, grouped in zones northwest of the coast. The Netherlands has developed several large wind zones off its western shore. Belgium and Denmark both operate farms in their portions of the North Sea. A consortium of grid operators is planning centralized offshore energy hubs in the deeper central North Sea, envisioned as 10 to 15 gigawatt islands that would connect to multiple countries via undersea cables. The first of these hubs is expected in the early 2030s.
Siting in the North Sea involves careful negotiation with environmental protections. Protected biodiversity areas, including the Natura 2000 network, are scattered throughout the sea. The Dogger Bank area in the central North Sea, for instance, overlaps with ecologically sensitive zones, and development there requires detailed assessments of impacts on marine life. Belgian, Danish, Dutch, and German waters all partially overlap with protected areas.
How Far From Shore and How Deep
Most operational offshore wind farms sit closer to land than people assume. The global average distance from shore is about 19 kilometers, in water roughly 15 meters deep. European projects tend to be a bit farther out, averaging around 23 kilometers from shore in about 17 meters of water. Asian projects are typically much closer, averaging just 7 kilometers offshore in water under 7 meters deep. Only a handful of farms push beyond 100 kilometers from the coastline.
Water depth is the biggest physical constraint on where turbines can go. The standard foundation type, a monopile (essentially a large steel tube driven into the seabed), works in waters up to about 50 meters deep. Jacket foundations, which look like lattice towers, also top out around that depth. This 50-meter limit effectively restricts most of today’s offshore wind to continental shelves and shallow coastal zones.
Distance from shore also matters for getting electricity back to land. Traditional undersea power cables using alternating current lose efficiency beyond about 100 kilometers. Newer direct current cables can carry power much farther, which is opening up deeper, more remote sites that would have been impractical a decade ago.
Floating Turbines Are Opening Deeper Waters
The next frontier is floating wind technology, which removes the depth restriction entirely. Instead of being anchored to the seabed with rigid foundations, floating turbines sit on buoyant platforms tethered by cables. This allows turbines to operate in water hundreds of meters deep, accessing areas with stronger, more consistent winds.
The world’s first floating wind farm, Hywind Scotland, has been operating since 2017 off the coast of Peterhead in northeastern Scotland. Its five turbines sit in water more than 100 meters deep. Several floating designs exist: spar buoys work best in water deeper than 100 meters, semi-submersible platforms can function in depths as shallow as 40 meters, and tension leg platforms suit depths of 50 to 60 meters.
Floating technology is particularly important for countries like Japan, South Korea, and parts of the United States where the continental shelf drops off steeply close to shore. The deep waters off the U.S. West Coast and the coast of Maine, for example, are poor candidates for fixed-bottom turbines but could host large floating arrays.
Offshore Wind in the United States
The U.S. offshore wind industry is still in its early stages. The country’s first offshore wind farm, Block Island Wind, began operating off Rhode Island in 2016 with 30 megawatts of capacity, just five turbines. A smaller pilot project, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, sits off the coast of Virginia with 12 megawatts. These are tiny compared to European and Chinese projects that routinely exceed 500 megawatts.
Larger projects are in various stages of development along the Atlantic coast, from Massachusetts to the Carolinas. The federal government has designated lease areas in the waters off New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and other states. The Gulf of Mexico and Pacific coast have also seen lease sales, though projects there face different challenges: hurricanes in the Gulf and deep water on the Pacific shelf.
What Determines Where Turbines Go
Choosing a site for offshore wind involves balancing several competing factors. Wind speed is the starting point: developers look for areas with strong, steady winds, which are typically found farther from shore where land doesn’t disrupt airflow. But going farther out increases construction costs and the expense of running cables back to land.
Seabed conditions matter enormously. Sandy or clay bottoms are easier to work with than rocky substrates. Shipping lanes, fishing grounds, military exercise zones, and undersea cable routes all create no-go areas. Environmental protections for bird migration corridors, whale habitats, and marine sanctuaries further narrow the options. In the North Sea, the overlap between ideal wind sites and protected biodiversity areas is a persistent planning challenge.
Grid connection is another practical constraint. Turbines need to connect to onshore electrical infrastructure, so sites near coastal substations or industrial ports have a logistical advantage. This is one reason why clusters form in specific regions rather than being spread evenly along a country’s coast.