And indeed, like in onshore wind, you will see pension funds and other low risk, long term investors coming to hold offshore wind assets, which provide stable revenues over very long periods. But they are not here yet (apart form a couple of deals) because the industry is in its infancy and cannot yet demonstrate the risk profile these investors need.

Even construction risk, which will be borne by project finance banks (and of course, by equity investors) is still difficult to finance, because the risk is so little understood.

And banks cannot externalise the risk analysis - and they shouldn't, as that is what is their core business. And in project finance, they take the job seriously and do it well. But these are conservative times, and it is difficult to get banks to commit to new sectors with no track record, especially as they are asked to take more risk than in other industries (other project finance sector either have construction guarantees by strong sponsors like oil companies, or turnkey construction contracts with very large contractors; here you have multiple contracts with no sponsor guarantees, and higher intrinsic risk due to the weather complication of building offshore).

So yes, there will be room for advisors on the project side, but banks are indispensable, and they need to have the competence in-house, otherwise they cannot approve the loans, and nobody else will provide them

Wind power