Hogan Lovell OffshoreBook 2023 230809 OnlinePDF - Flipbook - Page 179
Offshore Wind Worldwide 2023
1. STATE AND FUTURE OF
OFFSHORE WIND PROJECTS
Norway has in recent years started extensive
work to establish a framework for offshore
wind energy production and develop its
first large-scale offshore wind farms. The
North Sea and the Norwegian continental
shelf have significant wind resources and
available acreage, making them suitable for
large-scale offshore wind production.
From a Norwegian perspective, offshore
wind development is seen both as a way
to provide necessary clean energy production, to reduce Norway’s greenhouse gas
emissions, and to facilitate the adaption of
Norway’s already substantial offshore supplier industry to the green transition.
The Norwegian government’s ambition is to
award acreage with the potential for 30 GW
of offshore wind production by 2040, approximately equal to Norway’s total electricity
production (from hydro, onshore wind and
solar) today. The industry has assessed the
potential market size for offshore wind in the
North Sea basin in the period 2025-2040 at
60 GW. Due to the water depths, a substantial part of this is expected to be floating
installations.
As of today, Norway has one operational offshore wind farm, called "Hywind Tampen",
along with several test and demonstration
projects. Hywind Tampen is a floating offshore wind farm supplying electricity for the
operation of the Snorre and Gullfaks oil and
gas fields.
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In 2020, the Norwegian government opened
the first specific areas for licensing of offshore wind projects, at Utsira Nord and
Sørlige Nordsjø II. In total, these areas have
been authorized for 4,500 MW in total. The
tendering process for award of these areas
is expected to be completed by the end
of 2023, with operational projects around
2030.
In addition, the Norwegian government has
begun assessing new potential areas for
offshore wind, and the government plans
to launch a new round of calls for tenders
in 2025. Due to the substantial scale of
the potential offshore wind capacity, it is
expected that a significant portion of future
offshore wind capacity will be connected
to Nordic and European electricity grids
through hybrid interconnectors or a joint
offshore grid.
