Iberdrola, TotalEnergies, Norsk Havvind join Norway's offshore wind race

Spanish electric utility Iberdrola SA (BME:IBE), France’s TotalEnergies (EPA:TTE) and Norwegian offshore wind outfit Norsk Havvind have formed a consortium to bid for 4.5 GW of capacity across two offshore sites in Norway's upcoming tender.

The Norwegian government is offering the two sites for the development of floating and bottom-fixed offshore wind capacity. The Utsira Nord site, a 1,000-square-kilometre (386 sq miles) area north-west of Stavanger, is suitable for floating wind farms. Soerlige Nordsjoe II, an area of around 2,590 square kilometres bordering the Danish sector of the North Sea, can accommodate bottom-fixed wind turbines.

The partners will be eyeing both sites. In their joint statement on Wednesday, they said that “the consortium will leverage in its offer the proven technical expertise of its members in both bottom fixed and floating offshore wind, as well as its in-depth knowledge of the challenges, territories and stakeholders in Norway.”

The trio joins a pack of big name energy developers and investors interested in bidding for the Utsira Nord and Soerlige Nordsjoe II sites. More recently, Germany’s RWE AG (ETR:RWE) partnered with two Norwegian companies to compete for the floating wind site in the tender.

Green Investment Group Ltd (GIG) is eyeing the Soerlige Nordsjoe II zone, alongside its partners Vargronn and Agder Energi, it was announced this summer. BP Plc (LON:BP) has joined Statkraft AS and Aker Offshore Wind in the race for Soerlige Nordsjoe II.

Danish offshore wind major Ørsted A/S (CPH:ORSTED) and Belgium’s Parkwind NV have formed partnerships of their own to go after both sites.

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