Financial appraisal of operational offshore wind energy projects

This paper investigates the commercial attractiveness of the nascent offshore wind energy industry from an asset owner's perspective. Two commercial scale operational projects are used as illustrative cases. Based upon historical empirical financial and performance data in conjunction with future spot market price scenarios, a discounted cash flow methodology has been applied to underpin the financial value over each life cycle of plant. The robustness of the results is strengthened by sensitizing key input parameters. The results suggest that project annualized returns range between 8% and 11% above prescribed costs of capital. A key finding is that the cost of capital can be more instrumental in achieving lower costs of energy than site selection itself. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.