Utsira Nord Will Lead Offshore Wind

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! Sign
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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.