The legs that the offshore wind industry will literally stand on open up tantalising opportunities for Norwegian industry. But without a quick boost of innovation, the dream can slip away.
Norway currently has two offshore wind turbines in operation. The government’s newly increased targets for offshore wind mean that by 2040 we will erect another 1,500 of these on the Norwegian continental shelf. Meanwhile, the EU wants at least 20,000 similar installations before 2050.
Today’s production technology makes it difficult to manufacture hundreds of substructures for wind farms far from shore within just a few years.
To get past this issue, we need a boost to knowledge and innovation to automate and streamline the production sites for substructures.
This development will further the skills Norway developed in its offshore and shipbuilding industry over the last 50 years, as well as the knowledge already acquired in the field of offshore wind (including advancements made through the Research Council’s centres Nowitech and NorthWind).
Read the whole op-ed by Magnus Eriksson, senior business developer at SINTEF, in Norwegian paper Dagens Næringsliv (the op-ed is in Norwegian).
