The Norwegian government has proposed to allocate the areas of Utsira Nord based on qualitative criteria, rather than through an auction. The Utsira Nord lease area has an offshore wind potential of 1.5 GW. The country aims to facilitate innovation and technology development that can contribute to cost reductions for floating offshore wind.
Norway plans to award the development of the Utsira Nord lease area and of the 3 GW Sørlige Nordsjø II area. Sørlige Nordsjø II will be auctioned off in two 1.5 GW phases, with the first auction expected in 2022. Several groups or consortia have already expressed interest in taking part to the future offshore wind development. Bidders for the Utsira Nord area include a consortium of RWE, NTE and Havfram, a consortium of Agder Energi and Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (GIG) and a consortium of Equinor and Vårgrønn (a joint venture of Eni (69.6%) and HitecVision (30.4%)). Bidders for the Sørlige Nordsjø II area include a consortium of Equinor, RWE Renewables and Hydro, a consortium of EnBW, Norseman Wind, ASKO Fornybar, and NorgesGruppen, and a consortium of BP, Aker and Staktraft. Bidders for the two areas will include RWE, a joint venture of EDF and Deep Wind, a joint venture of Vatenfall and Seagust, a consortium of Ørsted, Fred. Olsen Renewables and Hafslund Eco, a consortium of Shell, BKK and Lyse, a consortium of Iberdrola, TotalEnergies, and Norsk Havvind.
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