Special advisor for the Research Council of Norway, Tone Ibenholt, formally handed over an FME plaque to NorthWind research centre leader John Olav Tande at a ceremony in Oslo. The handover happened a little over 10 months after the official announcement that FME NorthWind would get financing from the Council. The ceremony had to be delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It happened during a meeting between representatives from all FME centres and the Research Council. The FMEs are centres for environment-friendly energy research.
Wind power is poised to take a large share of Norways energy supply. “Offshore wind alone is expected to cover a third of Norway’s electricity needs by 2050. This gives us an opportunity to create a new export industry for products and services related to offshore wind”, says centre leader John Olav Tande.
In addition to delaying the handover of the plaque, Covid-19 also meant the centre was unable to hold an in-person kick-off event to officially mark the launch of its activities. Centre partners will luckily be able to meet in person soon, at NorthWind’s Annual Innovation Forum which will take place in Trondheim on December 9th.
