LONDON, Sept 28 Reuters A perfect storm of supply chain delays, design flaws and higher costs in the offshore wind industry has put dozens of projects at risk of not being delivered in time for countries to meet climate goals, industry executives, investors and analysts said.

The race to reduce reliance on fossil fuels is putting pressure on manufacturers and supply chains to keep pace with demand for more clean energy, especially in the European Union which is finalising a legally binding goal to produce 42.5 of energy from renewables by 2030.

Up from 32 now, the new target would require 420 gigawatts GW of wind energy including 103 GW offshore, more than double current capacity of 205 GW of which just 17 GW is offshore, according to industry group WindEurope.

But so far this year, projects off Britain, the Netherlands and Norway have been delayed or shelved due to rising costs and supply chain constraints while Britain39;s renewable energy auction this month failed to attract any bids from offshore wind developers, also because of high industry costs.

If this turns into a prolonged pause of projects then without a doubt a lot of the 2030 renewables goals will be under pressure, said Jon Wallace, an investment manager at Jupiter Asset Management.

Even before the EU agreed its new renewables target this year, companies including Orsted, Shell, Equinor, wind turbine manufacturer Siemens Gamesa and WindEurope had warned that the offshore wind industry was not big…