Norway's First Offshore Windfarm Halted

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) -- Work on Norway's first offshore windfarm project has ground to a halt thanks to a lack of support from the government.

Developer Vestavind Offshore AS (Bergen) has blamed a lack of political support for putting the 350-megawatt (MW) Havsul I windfarm project on ice. The company said there is "no possibility to invest in offshore wind power in Norway with the current framework". Norway has some of the best wind conditions in Europe for offshore development and has the potential scope to generate up to 30,000 MW of offshore electricity.

"There is broad consensus that Norway's unique petro-maritime expertise could have provided us with a good position in the growing international offshore wind market," said Chairman of Vestavind Offshore, Wenche Teigland. "But as in all other countries that have chosen to invest in offshore wind, the industry in Norway depends on political will to get going. That will is not present."

The Havsul I windfarm is located off the northwest coast and would have a potential generating capacity of around 1-terawatt ( TWh) annually, enough for 50,000 homes. Permission was granted in 2009. In 2010, Vestavind announced it was going ahead with the project, at the same time as announcing the Stadtvind wind project, Norway's first commercial-scale offshore floating windfarm. Construction of the €1.9 billion ($2.5 billion) Stadtvind project is set to begin in January 2015, and will be 56 kilometres (km) from the Stadlandet shore in the North Sea. The ambitious windfarm will consist of six modules, each consisting of 36 floating pylons rated at 5 MW each. Stadtvind will have a potential generating capacity of roughly 1,080 MW.

Permission for Havsul I was granted at a time when Norway was suffering a recession, like many European countries, and there were significant layoffs in the oil and gas sector. According to Vestavind the situation is different now with "high activity in the oil and gas industry, and the political will to invest in renewable energy industries is lower now than it was three years ago. The necessary support for offshore wind from the political leadership is not present."

Teigland concluded: "How long it will take for offshore wind power can be realized in Norway, is hard to say. It requires either a change in the priorities of politicians, or we wait for technology developments that will make offshore wind power more competitive within the current framework."

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