Seven applicants for offshore wind pre-qualification

Pre-qualification is the initial phase in a tender process. The area, planned to have a capacity of up to 1,500 MW, will be put up in an auction, scheduled for February 2024. Before being able to bid, the applicants must document their technical competence, financial strength and meet the requirements to health, safety and environment.

The recent increase in costs in the global wind industry has made several players reluctant to invest in new offshore wind projects.

Strong applicants

But the Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Terje Aasland, expressed content with the applicants at the deadline last week.  

– Despite a significant increase in the production costs for offshore wind, we are happy to conclude we have several strong applicants preparing for the auction. This is key to reach the Government’s future goal for offshore wind production, says Aasland.

Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Terje Aasland. Photo: Naina Helen Jåma NTB/Kommunikasjon  

The Norwegian governments aims to reach a production of 30GW from offshore wind by 2040E, which equals almost whole of Norway’s today’s consumption. End of March this year, the two first areas, Utsira Nord and Sørlige Nordsjø II, were opened for pre-qualification.

The following consortiums have applied:

• Aker Offshore Wind, BP and Statkraft
• Equinor and RWE
• Mingyang Smart Energy
• Norseman Wind
• Parkwind and Ingka (Ikea)
• Shell, Lyse and Eviny
• Hydroelectric Corporation

Important ripple effect for suppliers

The development of the offshore wind production is crucial for a number of companies in the whole value chain. In an interview with Nettavisen, minster Aasland confirmes that supporting the supplier industri is important. 

– The Norwegian offshore wind project can be seen in three dimensions: More renewable energy, cut in emissions, but also, and most importantly, we are enabling Norwegian suppliers to take part in a new value chain, giving them an oppertunity to enter a global market, says Aasland.

A study, conducted by Menon Economics on behalf of Norwegian Offshore Wind, Export Finance Norway, Invest in Bergen, Invest in Agder and Invest in Rogaland, has analyzed the potential economic ripple effect from the development of offshore wind.

 – This step is an important milestone towards our governmental ambitions of 30GW awarded offshore wind in 2040, and will give a positive boost for our supply chain needed to meet our ambitious targets, says Business Development Manager in the Bergen region cluster GCO Ocean, Kai Stoltz.

Menons’s calculations indicate a significant opportunity for Norwegian installation and assembly ports, which collectively aim to achieve an installation and assembly capacity of 5 GW annually by 2030. For offshore wind parks being developed in the North Sea, there will likely be a demand for an installation and assembly capacity of up to 12 GW by 2030, nearly four times the existing capacity of 3.2 GW.

You can download and read the report here.