Need for speed!
Energy Valley welcomed over a hundred participants at Fornebu to get insights into how offshore wind can enable energy independence and Norway’s strategic role in the new energy landscape.
The industry is united in its message. The industry is ready; the investors are ready, and the technology is ready. More licensing areas, a faster-licensing process, and a clear regulatory framework are urgently needed to provide the necessary speed.
The industry is ready!
Scale, pace, competence, coexistence, and building broad political support were some of the things mentioned as key enablers of the offshore wind industry, during the industry panel with representatives from Equinor, Aker Offshore Wind, Norsk Hydro, ABB, TGS, SEB, and NUPI.
Ivar Slengesol, VP New Energy Solutions at TGS was the moderator for the industry panel and asked the industry what are the key steps needed to accelerate the development of the offshore wind industry in Norway?
– Speed, speed, speed, says Anders Ystad, Head of Markets & Policy at Equinor.
Martin Kjäll-Ohlsson, VP Offshore Power, Energy Industries, ABB. Foto: Linea Bancel
An industrial fairytale
The message from Norsk Hydro was that we need all the renewable sources to cover the upcoming demand and offshore wind is the one with the highest growth potential compared to the current installed capacity.
Bjarne Schieldrop, Chief Analyst, SEB talked about industrial opportunities in a new energy landscape. Europe needs energy and is importing great parts of it as oil and gas. Norway supplied 19% of all fossil energy to EU27+UK in 2019 and should aim to take the same share of the new needs for renewables.
– Offshore wind can become an industrial fairytale for Norway. Norway should aim to build and export between 1,000 TWh/yr to 2,000 TWh/yr of electricity and hydrogen combined by 2050. The offshore wind power resources are there.
Bjarne Schieldrop, Chief Analyst at SEB talked about industrial opportunities in a new energy landscape. During his presentation, he showed that power prices in Norway=German power prices for decades and argued that the increased energy price is not connected to the recently added electrical cables. Foto: Linea Bancel
The investors are ready to invest
To get there the industry is missing a well-defined competition model, says Geir Ove Karlsen, Head of Policy & Government Affairs at Aker Offshore Wind.
– We need to know what we are competing about before we start competing.
Martin Kjäll-Ohlsson, VP Offshore Power, Energy Industries at ABB emphasizes that the companies need predictability to invest. At the same time, the investors are ready to invest, but the projects are missing, reminded Bjarne Schieldrop. Ivar Slengesol believes that the project development time is too long. It takes around six to seven years:
– And we need to bring it down!
See Chief Analyst at SEB Bjarne Schieldrop talking about the challenges facing the renewable industry here:
– We need to run processes in parallel and reduce the number of steps, when possible, says Geir Ove Karlsen, Aker Offshore Wind.
– Variable energy is difficult to predict, and you do not want to over-invest. But you can always change the way the market is built, and we have the tools to address it – build a solid grid across Europe and solid enough storage, says Anders Ystad, Head of Markets & Policy at Equinor.
Several ambassadors joined the event. Here Richard Wood, British Ambassador to Norway raised a question regarding the debate in Norway lately on the high energy prices and electrical cables and asked how we could change the debate to securing energy supply. Foto: Linea Bancel