2016 has been a good year for the Norwegian wind industry, with an expected total of 2,000 MW of new wind capacity expected to be generated by the end of 2016, according to NORWEA, the Norwegian Wind Association.
Major investments have been finalized this year, with 1,430 MW of projects such as Fosen, Hamnefjell, Tellenes, Egersund, and Raskiftet, and an additional 600 MW of additional projects expected to be confirmed by 2017.
The investments enable Norway to close in on power production of 10TWh per year from a wind power production record of 2.5 TWh last year.
Andreas Thon Aasheim, special advisor to NORWEA said: “It’s a tremendous indication of the health of the Norwegian wind industry, and represents total financial investment somewhere north of NOK 20 billion (US $2.4 billion).”
He added: “Between 2010 and 2012 the industry was basically at a standstill until a decision to enter the Swedish Certificate System was made. It’s taken time to get going again, and only now we’re seeing that projects have matured enough to reach final investment decisions.”
The development of new wind technologies has helped compensating for low electricity prices in the region.
He said: “These factors have enabled many excellent projects to compete in the technology-neutral certificates market… It’s those that we’re seeing now.”
Aasheim also said: “We’re seeing virtually every wind farm being invested in has some degree of foreign investment made towards it… We’d never have reached these figures without foreign money. Take Fosen, that’s 40% owned by Credit Suisse via the Nordic Wind Power Consortium, while the Tellenes and Egersund projects will be fully owned by foreign investors.”
More than half of the 2016 investments will represent foreign investment, according to Aasheim.
NORWEA has played a key role in the investment projects, thanks to an annual finance seminar held since 2012, which enables networking for investors, banks, and Norwegian developers.
Aasheim said: “It’s a sort of Norwegian Wind 101 — an excellent way of making opportunities in Norwegian wind more accessible to investors… “
The projects won’t come to term before a couple of year, but the expected growth was welcomed by the Norway’s domestic industry.
These topics and more will be discussed at the Sustainable Investment Forum, taking place on September 20th 2016 in New York.
