OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings says in a new report that offshore wind power projects exhibit greater completion risk, more complex operations and greater risk of one-off major failures compared with onshore peers. On the other hand, stronger wind speeds offshore result in higher and more stable generation per MW compared with onshore projects.

Operational offshore wind projects may be rated investment-grade, subject to adequate mitigation of technical and operational performance risk. Offshore wind plants under construction, however, are exposed to materially greater challenges compared with onshore projects and their ratings are likely to be constrained in most cases to speculative-grade.

Challenging weather conditions lead to uneven availability and operating and cost profiles for offshore projects compared with onshore peers. Dependency on vessels to transport personnel, equipment and perform maintenance, if not adequately managed, may result in material deviations from budgets. Key factors driving Fitch's assessment of operating risk are the project's location, the operation and management set-up, the technology used and the project's technical design and scope.

Positively, higher turbine capacity and wind speeds result in greater and more stable offshore generation per MW compared with onshore projects. Estimated capacity factors average 45% compared with 33% for Fitch-rated onshore wind projects, although the accuracy of energy production forecasts is still open to debate. In Fitch's opinion simpler topography reduces some of the uncertainties in offshore production estimates while wake losses are more difficult to estimate due to the larger size of arrays and projects.