Speaking in January during a Brussels round table on renewable energy, Elisabeth Walaas, Norway's deputy foreign minister, said offshore wind had "huge potential for Norway".
According to wind mapping studies, the Nordic state ranks second only to Portugal in terms of offshore wind potential. "Norway's position is unique," Walaas says. The country already covers 60% of its overall needs with renewable energy, "which is three times as much as the EU's 2020 target". For renewable electricity, the share soars to 99%, thanks to the country's long-standing reliance on hydro power.
And with the EU’s 20% renewable objectives having to be met by 2020, Walaas believes Norway has "the potential to contribute" by exporting more of its green power to Europe.
"We have defined increased export of renewables as a desired political objective,” Monica Stubholt, Norwegian state secretary for petroleum and energy, told EurActiv in an interview.
Exports of renewable electricity to the EU currently stand at a "one or two terawatt hours (TW/h)" per year, according to Stubholt. But she expects the figure to rise in future, despite the government not having set itself specific targets.
"We may set such targets later on, but the main point must be to work hard on renewables, not only hydro power but also wind and then to make sure that we are a contributor to a joint effort in the European context," she said
Stubholt believes offshore wind will not only help meet European demand, but will also "decarbonise" the production of oil and gas, Norway's main export to the EU.
"I believe that offshore wind will meet a demand on the Norwegian continental shelf from the petroleum production, but it will also offer considerable potential for export," as Norway is very close to the UK and Denmark, she said.
Full scale deployment of offshore wind 'will take time'
However, Deputy Foreign Minister Walaas said "technological challenges" specific to offshore wind remained, as the most promising areas are situated in deep waters and in areas where seas are particularly rough.
According to Sjur Bratland, an advisor at StatoilHydro, the Norwegian state-owned energy firm, the way forward is to develop floating windmills, a technology he says "can bring wind power into a new era".
Demonstration models have already been developed and the next stage will be to fit the technology onto medium and then large-scale wind farms that can operate in harsh natural environments. But bringing this kind of development could take up to ten years to achieve, Bratland explained.
"Development of offshore wind will take time," Walaas further warned, adding that the government "will present a strategy for offshore wind later this spring".
Grid infrastructure 'insufficient'
Another challenge, Walaas pointed out, is that the current electricity grid infrastructure is "insufficient". An undersea cable linking Norway to the Netherlands was inaugurated in May last year, and more interconnections are currently being discussed with Denmark and the UK. But a fully-fledged offshore grid is not expected before 2020 at the earliest, according to Norwegian estimates.
A 'supergrid' linking countries around the North Sea has been under discussion for some time. It is one of the priority projects highlighted by the European Commission in its recent proposal for an economic recovery plan (EurActiv 29/01/09). The list of priority projects is due to be discussed and possibly amended by member states during a meeting of foreign affairs ministers on 23-24 February.
But practical problems remain, Stubholt said. "We don't really know which countries will be actively involved and we also need to look at how we resolve the financing issue. And in many ways, this could turn out to be a stumbling block if we don't find ways of ensuring that the initial investments may be collected further down the road."
