Norway receives just 2 offshore wind applications

The applicants are actually two consortia: Equinor Utsira Nord and Vårgrønn Utsira Nord; and Harald Hårfagre (Deep Wind Offshore Norway) and EDF.

The number of applications received was the minimum required to allow an auction to go ahead, and the winner, the Ministry of Energy says, will be ’the one who bids [for] the lowest level of financial support to realise their project’.

Bids that required more than NOK 35 billion (€3.2 billion) would not have been accepted, it says – in other words, any successful bidder would need €3.2 billion to have any chance of winning.

The Utsira Nord region is only suitable for floating offshore wind because of the depth of its waters.

“It is encouraging that two consortia, consisting of strong players, have applied to take part in the competition for floating offshore wind in Utsira Nord,” said Minister of Energy Terje Aasland.

“Offshore wind is one of the government’s key focus areas to ensure sufficient power supply in the years ahead. During the development phase, floating offshore wind in Utsira Nord will play an important role in advancing technology and reducing costs. By investing in offshore wind, we are also laying a solid foundation for Norwegian suppliers to compete in the development of future offshore wind projects.”

Because of all of its inlets, Norway has the longest coastline of any country in Europe at 100,000 km if you include all the fjords and islands, and almost 29,000 without them (still by far the longest), according to ‘Life in Norway’. Yet it has just one commercial floating wind farm, which provides electricity to Equinor’s oil and gas operations, and only two demonstrators.

The government says it aims to allocate areas for 30,000MW (3GW) of offshore wind production by 2040.

The Ministry of Energy has been contacted for comment.