Mingyang among seven applicants for Norway's offshore wind tender
Mingyang among seven applicants for Norway's offshore wind tender | Windpower Monthly
The Norwegian ministry of energy today (November 15) revealed the firms that had applied to bid in the Sørlige Nordsjø II auction, targeting a maritime area for offshore wind development in the Norwegian North Sea.
Mingyang applied to bid as an individual company rather than as a consortium, the government’s statement showed. Among the others applying for bids in the tender is a consortium of Norwegian utility Statkraft, British oil major BP and offshore wind specialist Aker, and a rival consortium combining Norwegian oil firm Equinor and German developer RWE.
Also listed, was a consortium between oil multinational Shell, Norwegian electricity firm Lyse and power company Eviny. Belgian offshore wind specialist Parkwind and Ingka Group, which owns Ikea, also applied together.
In addition to Mingyang, Texas-based Hydroelectric Corporation, and Norseman Wind, a subsidary German energy firm EnBW also submitted individual applications to take part in the tender.
The Sørlige Nordsjø II or Southern North Sea II tender will seek to auction up to 1.5GW of fixed bottom offshore wind capacity in Norway’s North Sea. The country is aiming to allocate 30GW of offshore wind capacity by 2040 as it diversifies its energy mix beyond its existing reliance on oil, gas and hydropower.
Mingyang’s existing wind fleet is one of the largest in the world. The company has an installed capacity of over 43GW according to Windpower Intelligence, the data and research division of Windpower Monthly.
The majority of its turbines are installed in mainland China but Minyang is also present in Europe, including at the 30MW Beleolico wind farm off Italy’s southern coast.
The Sørlige Nordsjø II tender was postponed by the Norwegian government last month in an effort to ensure compliance with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA)’s monitoring body ESA.
It currently has a “tentative deadline” of February 2024.
Norway’s other upcoming offshore wind tender Utsira Nord — which seeks to auction up to 1.5GW of floating offshore wind capacity in the deeper waters off Norway’s west coast — has been postponed indefinitely.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.