The government with several measures to streamline the licensing process for offshore wind

– We aim to start the tendering process for new offshore wind areas within 2025, said Norwegian State Secretary Elisabeth Sæther during her opening speech at our offshore wind conference Science Meets Industry in Bergen this week.

More than 130 participants were present in the aula at the University of Bergen for our annual offshore wind conference Science Meets Industry (SMI) that GCE Ocean Technology hosts together with NORCE and Bergen Offshore Wind Centre (BOW).

In her speech, Sæther guaranteed that measures are taken by the government to ensure a speedy and streamlined licensing process for offshore wind.

One of them being considered is to combine the license of production with the detailed plan for the production to save some time.

Moreover, a proposal to parliament of a severe strengthening of our own ministry to have more case handlers who can manage all the great project applications that will come from the industries, explained Sæther.

– Hopefully this is a good response to the industries’ impatience, said Sæther.

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Copy, paste - steal with pride

Bottlenecks like capacity, time factors, people pipeline, coexistence, and regulations within offshore wind were on the agenda, as were the great opportunities for Norwegian suppliers to contribute towards the Danish Energy Islands.

– Don’t start from scratch, said Christina Aabo, from Aabo Energy. – Please go and have a look at what has been done before in the more mature markets. Contact the relevant authorities, sit down and have one-on-one meetings with UK, Holland, Denmark and so on, she encouraged.

– Please copy, paste, steal with pride, Aabo exclaimed.

Norwegian answers to Danish Energy Islands

The world’s first energy islands will be constructed in Denmark, exploiting their immense wind resources in the North and Baltic seas. The energy islands will serve as hubs that can create better connections between energy generated from offshore wind and the energy systems in the region around the two seas (Source: Danish Energy Agency).

In a study by Green Ducklings a total of +100 Norwegian companies were identified as potential suppliers for the Danish Energy Islands.

The Norwegian supply chain is considered comparatively strongest in the artificial island civil works with opportunities to deliver a combination of construction material supply and marine logistics according to the study.

Norway has several strong suppliers of both supply substations and cables and a number of strong suppliers in the installation phase and this is as a result potentially the opportunity space with highest potential for Norway (Source: Green Ducklings).

Where are we heading?

Floating offshore wind is a growing industry and Norway wants to be global leader within this emerging market, however the need for speed is a recurring theme that is brought up by the industry.

Finn Gunnar Nielsen, Director of Bergen Offshore Wind Centre, in his Outlook for the future warned about the many question marks that needs to be answered like: where are we heading? Have Norway lost ten years? What should Norway deliver? What role should we take and are we ready for the competition? Norway’s goal of 30GW installed by 2040 requires according to Nielsen 1,5 GW installed per year or 2-3 turbines per week.

The purpose of the Science Meets Industry conference in Bergen is to reduce the question-marks and to boost networking and knowledge exchange between academia, industry and the public sector on all things offshore wind and we hope to see more collaboration and joint projects as a result of this conference.