Study on the Siting of Offshore Wind Farms and Prospects for Future Development

[Objective] Under the background of carbon neutrality, the development of new energy has attracted more attention from countries and regions, and offshore wind farms, based on abundant wind resources, have been vigorously developed by governments. [Method] The literature related to the offshore wind farms site selection was searched in the Web of Science core database, and the search results were analyzed based on CiteSpace software. [Result] The results show that the United States, China and England paid more attention to the research on offshore wind farms, and the number of publications had increased rapidly in recent years. During the period 1997-2010, the assessment of offshore wind energy, wave energy and other resources had been studied as the basis for the macro site selection of offshore wind farms. From 2011 to 2020, the micro-layout of offshore wind farms had been paid more attention. Since 2021, more studies begun to emphasize the sustainable development of offshore wind farms. [Conclusion] Overall, the location selection of offshore wind farms is influenced by the distribution of wind resources, the change of seafloor structure, the occurrence of marine geohazards, as well as the issuance of policy. With the maturity of shallow sea wind farm technology, the deep-sea offshore wind farm will be gradually developed in the future, which will further promote the development of floating offshore wind power. In addition, the cooperation development of offshore wind farms with oil and gas development, marine aquaculture and other projects will receive more research and attention.