A group of Norwegian companies have sent the government proposals for an offshore wind demonstration project off the coast of Norway to help boost the country’s export potential in the sector.
The Offshore 2025 proposals have been put together by Norwea, which has 130 members representing the wind, wave and tidal power value chain, and detail the arguments for an offshore demo project strategy.
Norwea said it has contacted the standing committee for energy and the environment in the Norwegian parliament because a recent white paper on energy policy lacked a strategy for an offshore wind demo, despite support for one from the Norwegian parliament.
The proposal includes a survey of Norwegian companies across the offshore wind value chain – apart from turbines – which estimates potential export value of Nkr60bn (€6.45bn) between 2025 and 2040.
But, the survey noted, that export potential is limited currently because of the lack of domestically-validated technologies for offshore wind.
“Norwegian companies are not first in line when the bids for large, European projects open,” Norwea said.
The proposals also include concepts for how a demo-site can best be used to “ennoble the products of previous and ongoing R&D on early-stage technology”, Norwea said.
Norwea project administrator Daniel Willoch said: “It’s peculiar how the government in the white paper on energy policy present the large opportunities for value creation from exports to the offshore wind market and continues to describe how a Norwegian demo-park would foster innovation and development and then continue on to do nothing of what a unanimous parliament asked for; a strategy.”
Image: reNEWS
