Norway Cutting Back on Onshore Wind

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GALWAY, IRELAND--June 29, 2020--Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Norway is putting the brakes on future onshore wind developments in response to environmental concerns and growing protests.

New proposed legislation will cut back on the amount of onshore wind developments, which have experienced a boom in recent years thanks to an attractive 15-year subsidy scheme that will end next year. Industrial Info is tracking 44 planned and approved onshore wind projects in Norway worth $7.6 billion.

The government was forced to postpone new onshore projects last year after clashes between protesters and police at two contentious onshore windfarm construction sites. The country has a goal of more than doubling installed onshore wind capacity during 2019-2020 by 2 gigawatts (GW) in new projects, with a further 0.4 GW due to be commissioned in 2021. The ambitious target has made Norway the fastest-growing country in western Europe in terms of installed onshore wind power capacity. The country leads the world in clean energy, with around 97% of all electricity produced by hydropower.

The forthcoming changes will increase the powers of local municipalities, reduce the project development time with stricter deadlines, assessment of potential profitability, turbine height restrictions, better impact assessments, more concern of the environment, and local compensation. Minister of Petroleum and Energy Tina Bru said: "The Government will present a parliamentary report today on historic austerity and improvements to the concession treatment of onshore wind power. Going forward, we will facilitate a limited and more moderate wind power development than we are seeing now. Local and regional anchoring should be improved. And more attention should be paid to nature, the environment and neighbours. The time of the process should be shortened and there will be far fewer changes to the developments. I believe wind power will be important for Norway in the long term. We have Europe's best onshore wind resources, and onshore wind power is one of the cheapest forms of renewable energy. This provides a basis for both business development and energy restructuring. But we need to have a better licensing system for the future."

Wind power currently provides enough power for roughly 500,000 people in Norway.

The restrictions on future onshore development comes a week after the government set out to attract investors towards its newborn offshore wind sector by opening up two offshore sectors for renewables development. Utsira Nord is located to the west of Haugesund, and is suited for floating wind power, which "is the most interesting technology from a Norwegian perspective" stated the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. It encompasses an area of more than 1,000 square kilometres, is close to shore and provides opportunities for demonstration projects and larger projects. The Sørlige Nordsjø II area borders the Danish sector in the North Sea and is suitable for the direct export of electricity. The area covers 2,591 square kilometres and has depths which makes it possible to develop bottom-fixed wind power as well as floating solutions.

Bru explained: "Offshore wind power offers great opportunities for Norwegian businesses. In the immediate future the market will be in other countries, but if the costs for offshore wind power continues to fall it could also become competitive in Norway. It is now time to prepare for the future development by allocating space for offshore renewables."

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