Offshore wind energy has achieved significant reductions in its levelized cost of energy (LCoE) in the past decade, but still needs efficiency improvements. Approximately 18% of the LCoE is related to logistical costs, underscoring the need for optimization in this area. Despite its importance, logistical decisions during offshore wind farm installations remain underexplored in the literature. This article aims to identify and structure the relationships of logistic decisions to optimize total installation costs. A conceptual framework is proposed, detailing logistical decisions and their influencing factors. The results are based on a literature review and survey research for validation with specialists in logistics and offshore wind farms. The findings include the key decisions: port installation selection; vessel fleet selection; installation strategy selection; turbine pre-assembly method selection; aggregate planning approach; installation schedule coverage; storage strategy of components; and the degree of sharing information. The framework reveals the importance of coordinating the value chain in the installation process, mainly due to the influence of weather factors; the logistic decisions, when considered in a systemic view, can contribute to a global efficiency gain in the installation process.

In recent years, offshore wind power has become increasingly relevant as a key alternative for contributing to the global economy’s decarbonization. Also, the accelerated technological development of the offshore wind turbine influences the increase in size and weight of its main components. This requires an appropriate port infrastructure to support the installation, operation, and maintenance and future decommissioning of offshore wind farms, and especially to serve as an area for manufacturing these components, addressing logistical challenges associated with land transport. This research aims to identify the factors that characterize a suitable port to support the offshore wind industry, also bringing the new green port industry concept. A systematic literature review was conducted via analyses of 126 documents, and a survey procedure was applied to validate the proposed model. As a result, a characterization model was proposed that includes 71 factors classified into 6 dimensions: physical characteristics, port layout, connectivity, port operation, port–farm performance optimization, and governance for sustainability, which is the main novelty of this study. The results contribute to the advancement of the offshore wind energy sector and can provide significant benefits for regional development and local communities with offshore wind potential.