Mads Arild Vedøy and Anders Nash explore the Utsira Nord project and Norway's bid to lead in floating offshore wind technology. They discuss the strategic transition from oil and gas, the unique tender process, and the global implications of a successful execution. Learn more about the Utsira Nord bidding process!
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Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy's brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering Tomorrow.
Allen Hall 2025: Mads and Anders, welcome to the program.
Anders Nash: Thank you. Thanks Allen, for having us. And, uh, it's a show we listen to a lot. So a pleasure to be with you today.
Allen Hall 2025: Well, we, we have a really interesting subject here, and I want to pick. Both your brains a about the, some of the complexities of floating wind in Norway. And, uh, we know that the floating offshore wind industry is still relatively new and it's actually at a critical juncture.
And even though we have proven that technology works at scale, it's, we, we don't have large development yet. And that is where Norway is stepping in and changing that equation quite radically. Uh. Let's just back up a minute. The project's called OSU Nord, and [00:01:00] if you haven't been paying attention, you've been missing a lot because, uh, floating wind is gonna be the way of the future.
But ultimately, what is the fundamental problem that OSU Nord is trying to solve?
Mads Arild Vedøy: So, of course, uh, node has been kind of on the verge. I, I would say, since the, the, since, at least since 2020, but also even before that with, uh, EOR, uh, launching their, uh, high wind, uh, demo turbine, right? The first world's first floating wind turbine.
And Norway really kind of saw itself as a front runner in, in floating wind. Um, fast forward to 2020. The then government opened these areas for offshore wind in Norway with, um, with uja, nor as one of the bigger floating one, right, one and a half gigawatt of floating wind. And what Norway kind of wants to do is to take a position within this market.[00:02:00]
It and, and more kind of this industrial perspective rather than for the energy production. Right? Because Norway has, uh, we are self-sufficient for now at least. Uh, but with the electrification going on. We will soon run enough that as well. But, but for now, and the predictions going on to, to 2030, we are Okay.
Looking a bit further. It should be, well, the, the surplus is gonna diminish or, or at least be far less than we have. So, yeah. That, that's the, I guess the problem we are trying to solve is, is more the transition from being an. Oil and gas community to, um, also secure the industry for the next phase of energy production, right?
And not only only gas, but also electricity. With Norway, then being this maritime nation and, and seeing ourselves as, as, uh, one of the leaders in, in, [00:03:00] in offshore installations, we, we see that we can take a position as a leading developer of, uh, of floating wind as well.
Joel Saxum: I think it's very interesting, right?
That we, you, we come along this, this train, right? Because like you said, Norway is, you're rife with renewable energies. You guys have a lot of hydro, you're, you're, you're good there. And the PPA prices for that reason are fairly low. Um, comparatively so you, but you have this industrial, marine, industrial complex that a lot of places don't have.
Allen and I have talked about on the podcast many times in the US we have a lot of coastline. The really only marine industrial complex we have is in the Gulf of Mexico, to be honest with you. Right. Otherwise, it's just kind of port cities and stuff like that. So you guys have, and, and we, we talked about this a little bit off air.
You know, my, my, my past in the oil and gas offshore world, it was like, we need to solve something, bring in the Norwegians because we know they're gonna get it done. We know they're gonna do it. Right. So there's a lot of [00:04:00] technology companies that already exist. For sub sea things up there, you have like, you know, one of the biggest ones, if you're offshore, anywhere, you know about Kongsberg, they're there, right?
So that they create all kinds of amazing instrumentation and tools for, for the marine environment. So you guys have that, that pedigree, that know-how. So I think it's really cool that you take, the idea is to take that, that in industrial complex and turn it into something that can really turn the economy on for the future.
Right. As you guys start to, like you said, like you start to pivot away from oil and gas. You have this skill sets, you have all of these amazing workers and technicians and professionals there that can do things that other places may not have. So it puts you guys in the, kind of the driver's seat for something like offshore floating wind.
I think it's really interesting.
Anders Nash: Obviously I'm, I'm sitting in Copenhagen. I'm not in, uh, in, in Norway with mass, but, uh. I was fortunate enough to work on some of the, um, the offshore bids, uh, during my time with RW with eor, for example, and it's, it's pronounced, it's very clear those strengths that you speak about in [00:05:00]Norway.
Those opportunities, they have that deep rooted ONG knowhow, very unique, um, in to some extent potentially an easy transition, something they can capitalize on in the in, in the wind sector as well. Curiously, we've seen recently NVE in Norway trying to push the government in the direction of fixed bottom offshore wind.
But clearly the government sees that their opportunity there deviates from the, should we say, tried and proven technology and can they leverage their know-how in that ONG sector, whether it's through platforms, whatever else it is, it's all there. I suppose the key question, mark, Allen and Joel, uh, and Mass and I reflect on this a lot.
Is Norway gonna be a nation of exporters of that knowledge? Will it be developed elsewhere or are they actually, do they have the appetite to develop that in their backyard as well? And that's, that's the sort of juncture that we sit at now.
Allen Hall 2025: Yeah. Because it really comes down to if [00:06:00] Sarah Norty isn't completed, and if there's not enough participation in the, uh, system that's been set up.
And we'll talk about that in a moment. The industry on, on the floating side is really gonna be in trouble. Uh, we need that leadership and the technology and the knowledge, as Joel has pointed out of, uh, of all the nor Norwegian offshore expertise to go ahead and do a floating project of that. It was relatively complicated.
It, these floating projects are not easy, particularly way up north. Uh, this is a big problem, right? And if, if, if nobody can pull this off, then pretty much the rest of the world. We'll just follow suit, right?
Mads Arild Vedøy: Yes. But, but I mean, there, there's also a competition here, right? We, we see all of, so we see France, we see uk, we see everyone's trying to take this position as the leading country for, well develop being the first making large scale commercial, uh, floating wind farm.
So, um, [00:07:00] it, it, it's just a, as much, uh, uh, an industrial endeavor. For, for, for Norway and for the, for the rest of the countries. But we, we also already see, um, Norwegian competencies, right? We see Norwegian ships, we, we and, and, um, anchor handlers and everything all over the world. Also in, in offshore wind projects.
So this is, well, depending on what kind of industry you're looking at, of course, but, uh, except for the yards and so on, the, the industry is already, already moving in that direction. And what this UJA North can do is just kind of strengthening that, um, that effort we see. I, I would say,
Anders Nash: I think, and there's a curious thing there isn't there, mass, because there's, there's two elements to this.
The first is, as Allen had touched upon a moment ago. Um, is it about, uh, Norway leveraging this in their own backyard? Um, is it something that we just develop [00:08:00] elsewhere? The danger, the juncture that we're at now we're seeing is with, with the UK floating projects, with what's going on in France with what's going on in Japan.
Does Norway now just start sending that knowledge elsewhere? Or is it something that they can actually develop locally and keep that local knowhow? And I think. Allen alluded to it a moment ago. This is a key juncture. Um, when we come back from our Nordic summer holidays, uh, we should hopefully start to see some bidders in the mix.
Um, but it's really crunch time. And the Norwegian government, I think they recognize that. So, um, let's see where we land.
Joel Saxum: Let's put it in sports context, right? We'll try, try to do this. We can be going go and be coaches on, on a soccer team or, you know, a soccer team anywhere and help out. However, we have an awesome practice pitch right out our back door.
Why don't we practice there as well and refine these things and then take it around the world. Because at the end of the day, 70% ish of the continental shelf of Norway is too deep for fixed bottom floating. And it's difficult too, right? [00:09:00] You're, it's very rocky. There's a lot of the complexities in o and m complexities, um, around that Norwegian coast.
So if, and that's kind of, I think where Allen was going before is if you can, if you can get it there, you have the practice field there to get it right....
