The Norwegian government earmarked 80 million NOK for offshore wind in its budget for the coming year.
The money will go towards strengthening the Ministry’s activities in the field and building new expertise, as well as site investigations and impact assessments.
– To reach the climate and energy goals we have set ourselves, we need strong investments in offshore wind, said the Minister of Oil and Energy, Terje Aasland. The money we are earmarking for the evaluation of new areas will be critical to meeting our target of 30 GW of installed offshore wind capacity by 2040.
Of the investments announced in the budget, 5 million NOK will go to building offshore wind expertise in the Agder county.
– We are pleased that the government is strengthening their efforts in the accelerating offshore wind development, says NorthWind director John Olav Tande. Considering that investments in offshore wind in Norway will be in the order of 1000 billion NOK to reach the 30 GW goal over the next 20-30 years, we are anxious to see the next steps that the government will take to make this a reality.
