Offshore Europe 2025 op-ed: Offshore wind’s future hinges on delivery

The next challenge and opportunity for the offshore wind industry is to ensure that policy targets and engineering achievements are matched by coordinated delivery that turns vision into megawatts.
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Sept. 4, 2025
4 min read

Key Highlights

  • Effective project delivery depends on meticulous planning, early risk mitigation and adaptive engineering to handle larger turbines and deeper foundations.
  • Supply chain resilience and technological innovation are crucial as the industry scales up, requiring significant investments in equipment and capabilities.
  • Strategic collaboration among contractors, developers and policymakers is essential to turn ambitious visions into operational megawatts.
  • The industry is poised for growth with upcoming projects like Berrick Bank, but success hinges on precise execution and partnership-led planning.
Courtesy Acteon
offshore windfarm
The offshore wind industry needs the frameworks, policy and supply chains to turn ambitions into much more steel in the water, Acteon CEO Brice Bouffard says.

By Brice Bouffard, Acteon

 

Thomas Edison said, "Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration," and offshore wind has no shortage of either.

In the last two years alone, global offshore wind capacity passed 83 GW, the Seagreen Offshore Wind Farm off the coast of Scotland installed the world’s deepest turbine foundation at 58.6 m and Green Volt floating wind received key development milestones positioning it as the largest commercial-scale development to date.

The industry has proven what is technically possible, and developers have worked meticulously to get the sector there. The next challenge and opportunity is to ensure that policy targets and engineering achievements are matched by coordinated delivery that turns vision into megawatts. In an auction- and CfD-driven market, project schedules remain the linchpin of competitiveness.

Staying competitive

Much of the 99% is already underway long before construction—in the planning, engineering and integration work that sets projects up for success. As project sizes grow and auction margins tighten, supply chains are under strain.

Just this year, the sector has seen Orsted cancel Hornsea 4, citing escalating costs, interest rates and execution risk, and Germany’s latest offshore wind tender received no bids due to cost and risk concerns. While these factors have made delivery more complex, they’ve also sharpened the industry’s focus on execution excellence. But competitive advantage is significantly influenced in the months and years that follow on the critical path.

Courtesy Acteon
geotechnical surveys for offshore wind project planning
Contractors should push for better geotechnical data and more soil samples to enable stronger planning and better-informed decision-making. 

Every stage of the critical path—from seabed surveys to installation and commissioning—must be managed with precision, built-in adaptability and a commitment to solving problems. This starts with robust early-phase work, such as thorough pre-FEED to de-risk design and avoid costly surprises later and comprehensive geotechnical acquisition programs that remain on track despite challenges like poor weather or sea state conditions.

Critical path contractors sit at the center of this, driving the most capital-intensive, time-sensitive phases of an offshore wind project. Requirements for mature services like structural grouting are changing rapidly, requiring innovation at pace.

Contractors that engage in proactive conversations about risk think ahead before committing offshore spend, and they push for better geotechnical data and more soil samples to enable stronger planning and better-informed decision-making. 

By managing risks early, reducing interfaces, focusing on resilience and adapting to changing conditions, projects and contractors can demonstrate that the sector is ready to meet the next wave of offshore wind challenges, from larger turbines and larger monopiles to operations farther offshore.

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Acting at scale

With the industry on an upward trajectory in terms of MW output, the stakes of delivery increase. Schedule delays at this scale can ripple across the supply chain, with the potential to become more expensive and complex to resolve. But it also brings an opportunity for those that can sharpen delivery and adapt. 

To install the planned 9-m and larger monopiles by 2027—and to advance toward deploying the 20-MW turbine currently in demonstration—the industry must develop new capabilities that do not yet exist in today’s market.

For some components, this scaling is exponential rather than a straight line. For example, to move from a 4,400-kJ hammer to a 6,000-kJ hammer that can drive 9-m to 10-m diameter piles to depths of 60 m to 70 m will require double the weight, cost and complexity. Similarly, where pile driving is not applicable, the industry will need to build the capability and machinery to drill larger seabed sockets, sometimes even custom-made tooling to account for specific conditions.

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Courtesy Acteon
offshore construction
Investment across technology, equipment and people will intensify as the industry looks to commercialize floating offshore wind at scale.

Critical path contractors must now balance supporting developers to achieve a lower levelized cost of energy while keeping pace with innovation. Most will need to invest in their own equipment and capabilities, and some may even need to invest in their supplier’s capabilities.

That investment across technology, equipment and people will only intensify as the industry looks to commercialize floating offshore wind at scale. This will demand scaling up mooring equipment, anchoring innovations for versatile soil conditions, dynamic cabling solutions and creative project execution. 

Offshore wind has no shortage of inspiration. Now the industry needs the frameworks, policy and supply chains to turn those ambitions to much more steel in the water.

The recent consent of Berwick Bank, a decade in the making, shows what’s possible; if fully delivered, its 4.1-GW capacity would make it the world’s largest wind farm. With Allocation Round 7 and beyond set to mark the next wave of milestone projects, the industry is poised for scale.

But as Edison stated, the other 99% will come down to creative, precise and partnership-led planning, consenting, engineering and delivery.

Acteon is exhibiting at booth 2E48 at the SPE Offshore Europe event this week in Aberdeen, Scotland. Acteon is also the Headline Sponsor of the Offshore Wind Theatre as part of the event.

About the Author

Brice Bouffard

Brice Bouffard is the CEO of Acteon. Joining in March 2024 as part of the acquisition of Acteon Group by Buckthorn Partners and OEP, he brings a wealth of business experience highly relevant to Acteon and its key segments. A proven C-suite leader, Bouffard has a strong international track record in commercial strategy, entrepreneurship, transformation and restructuring organizations for both corporate and private equity stakeholders, including Fugro, Weatherford and Schlumberger.

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