Ventyr Nordsjø II won the bidding for Sørlige Nordsjø II

Ventyr Nordsjø II is owned by Parkwind og Ingka-gruppen and was one of two bidders in the auction that opened 18. th of March 2024. Of originally seven applicants, five consortiums were approved for the auction by documenting that they met the minimum criteria for sustainability and positive ripple effects and implementation ability. Only two ened up bidding, and Ventyr Nordsjø II and Equinor have the last two days competed for state support by submitting increasingly lower bids until the player with the lowest bid in øre/kWh won the auction.

A milestone for further work

- This is a milestone in our plan for offshore wind, said Norwegian Minister of Energy Terje Aasland when announcing the news Wednesday.

The Norwegian Parliament has decided that the maximum level for state state support is NOK 23 billion over a 15-year period.  

The first competitions for project areas for offshore wind on the Norwegian continental shelf were announced in March last year, after the first areas on the Norwegian continental shelf were opened for offshore renewable energy production in 2020.

Growing renewables

The minister has stated that the Norwegian offshore wind project can be seen in three dimensions: More renewable energy, cut in emissions, but also, and most importantly, enabling Norwegian suppliers to access a new global export market as sub-suppliers to the offshore wind industry. 

The Norwegian renewable export has been steadily growing, according to the yearly national export analysis. From 2018 to 2022 the export of Norwegian renewable energy has doubled, to NOK 18,6 billion. The offshore wind service industry accounted for NOK 12 billion of these figures, two thirds of the total renewable export.  A full version of the report can be downloaded here. 

Important ripple effect

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

The study suggests 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 the report here.