Seabed Survey of New Offshore Wind Area in Norway Goes to Finnish Firm

The doors of the Norwegian NCS were first opened for offshore wind energy generation in 2020.

After the first project areas for offshore wind at Utsira Nord and Sørlige Nordsjø II were announced in 2023, the Norwegian authorities conducted an auction in March 2024 to award 1.5 GW in Sørlige Nordsjø II, which went to Belgian developer Parkwind.

The same month, the government announced that the award of 1.5 GW of floating wind capacity art Utsira Nord, which was planned for this year, will be held in 2025 as it plans to have the subsidy model in place and announced before allocating the Utsira Nord offshore areas for development.

While the tender for fixed-bottom offshore wind capacity at Southern North Sea II was based on the CfD model, the capacity at Utsira Nord will be awarded through a competition based on qualitative criteria which will, among other things, facilitate innovation and technology development in floating offshore wind.