“This is a milestone in the government’s offshore wind investment, and today we have taken a big step forward in the work to develop offshore wind in Norway,” said Terje Aasland, Minister of Petroleum and Energy of Norway.
The Norwegian government officially opened the application window for Norway’s first offshore wind auction on 29 March 2023, offering a combined capacity of 3 GW across two areas, 1.5 GW at Southern North Sea II and 1.5 GW at Utsira Nord.
In February, a total of five players were qualified to participate in the auction, namely Aker Offshore Wind, BP and Statkraft; Equinor and RWE; Norseman Wind, a subsidiary of EnBW; Shell, Lyse and Eviny; and Ventyr, a consortium of Parkwind and Ingka Investments.
In the auction that started on Monday 18 March, the qualified companies could compete for state aid. The Southern North Sea II tender was based on the so-called English auction model, with the bidder with the lowest bid price (NOK øre/kWh) to be selected.
Now, the state and Ventyr Energi have four weeks to sign a two-way Contract for Difference (CfD), according to the government.
The Norwegian Parliament has decided that the upper limit for state support is NOK 23 billion (approximately EUR 1.9 billion).
The Ventyr Energy consortium was first established as a partnership between Belgian offshore wind developer and operator Parkwind and the Norwegian energy service company NorSea.
In November 2023, Ingka Investments the investment arm of Ingka Group – the largest IKEA Retailer operator – also joined the Ventyr Energy consortium, taking a 49 per cent stake in the consortium.
The Norwegian Government is planning to award areas that have the potential for 30,000 MW of offshore wind production by 2040.
