16 INTERSECTION
K7 Bulletin tirsdag 18. februar
PHOTO: ©
Ad Meskens / Wikimedia Commons
The potential in offshore wind is huge.
SHOULD NORWAY BUILD OUT LARGE-SCALE OFFSHORE WIND? In the framework of the European Green Deal, the new European Commission (EC) aims to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. Norway can play an important part in achieving that goal through offshore wind. Tobias E. Biller intersection@k7bulletin.no
Offshore wind is on the rise globally and represents a significant future opportunity due to stable and abundant resources available. Currently, Europe is the global technology leader and big players such as the USA, China, India and Japan are following. When it comes to offshore wind, Norway is starting from scratch with currently no large-scale projects deployed. However, having one of the longest coastlines in the world, the country could have a large potential for offshore wind energy generation. Large potential to be exploited Especially the North Sea provides great conditions with low offshore wind development cost, and the proximity to the Central European markets with high electricity prices such as Germany and
the UK (see Figure 1). However, in Norway, many of these low-cost areas require floating technologies due to the water depth. The Norwegian energy company Equinor is the leading floating offshore wind developer in Europe. According to Equinor, 80% of the global offshore wind potential could only be exploited by floating technologies with the benefit of stronger and more consistent wind further out at sea. The Danish energy company Ørsted is the largest offshore wind company globally, specialized in bottom-fixed technologies. However, they have not started any projects in Norway so far. Øyvind Vessia, Head of European Affairs at Ørsted, states: ‘Although LCOE of offshore wind is now lower than the costs of conventional electricity supply technologies (over the last
year we have seen strike-prices between 40 and 50 €/MWh), there have been only a few projects without subsidies’. Although WindEurope expects low LCOE for some Norwegian sea areas, they still are projected to range between 50 and 65 €/MWh. Considering domestic electricity prices of around 39 €/MWh on average in 2019, it is hard to imagine a business case here. In addition, large areas of the Norwegian waters are too deep for bottom-fixed technologies and there, floating offshore wind is the only alternative. Challenges to offshore wind development There are some significant challenges to large-scale offshore wind development in Norway. For instance, about 60% of the North Seas area are currently excluded
from offshore wind projects due to environmental protection measures and other uses. Although the public acceptance is much higher for offshore than for onshore wind (which recently has faced increasing opposition in Norway), there are still several stakeholders involved, representing potential sources for conflict. Especially the North Sea and Skagerrak - in the southern part of the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) - are strongly influenced by human activity. These marine areas contain comprehensive shipping routes and are home to intensive fisheries as well as large-scale oil and gas industry. For addressing these issues, it requires a comprehensive integrated approach called maritime spatial planning (MSP), elaborated by the government and all the stakeholders in-
