Abstract
To reach global climate goals and targets, and work towards a greener future, we, as a global community, must significantly increase the proportion of renewable sources in the global energy mix used today. The Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre’s project “Pre-conditions for the development of offshore wind energy in Australia” is investigating the potential for renewable energy from offshore wind in Australia – where in 2022, the first six areas for offshore wind project proposals were announced. The project addresses the needs of the industry within this context, emphasizing regulatory processes, social acceptability, and supply chain operations while highlighting best practice as appliable to the Australian offshore wind industry1 . Norway is a relative late comer to the European offshore wind market but has made significant progress the last several years in developing offshore wind as a source of renewable energy within a context of changing political, economic and environmental situations that has shaped the governance structure into what it is today, where the first area has been auctioned off and there is movement towards possible start of energy production from offshore wind by 2030. As such, it may bring light to some of the challenges and opportunities and best practice that can be beneficial when considering the Australian context.
Both Norway and Australia have significant ocean areas they govern under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and as such, large potential areas for offshore energy production. Australia’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is in fact the third largest in the world, with an area of around 8,505,348 square km. Norway similarly also has a significant area it governs, holding the 17th spot for size of EEZ globally at 2,385,178 square km2 . Both countries also have needs for rapid decarbonization of society if they are to meet their Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) obligations for reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, preferably at a low cost while also ensuring that the systems are reliable and safe. They are also both faced with having to consider the implications of the obligations they have made under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), where they also, among others, have agreed to contribute to globally protecting and restoring 30% of all land and sea area by 2030. Australia has for example as its goal to reach a target of 82% of its power being generated from renewables by 20303 . Norway, though it already has a near 100% share of its power being generated by its 1600 hydropower plants and wind power installations on land, as part of the EU-Norway Green Alliance, which obligates the country to reduce GHG emissions by at least 55% by 2030 and be climate neutral by 20504 - while increasing power capacity.
In Norway, one of the solutions to towards achieving the latter has been an on-off-on-again investment in the potentials of offshore wind. The governance process thereof has not been straightforward in Norway since its first start in 2006-2007, though, and has been intermingled with political processes and economic considerations, including the low-cost existing hydropower industry in the country. These considerations have at times trumped the financial backings the industry has needed to be able to invest in this industry. The ambitions have increased in the latter years again, and in 2022 the Norwegian government presented that their goal for offshore wind was to have allocated areas to produce 30 GW of ocean wind by 2040. Once in service, these will contribute with an increase in power supply of near the equivalent of all the power produced in Norway in 2022. To do this, around 1500 wind turbines, depending on the technology and park lay-out used, would need to be in service. The area needed for this number of turbines would then arguably only need to be around 1% of Norway’s total marine area5 .
In this context, the following report will present an outline the status quo and timeline of recent events in the Norwegian offshore wind development, including the opening of Norway’s first offshore wind park, Norway’s first wind park auction, and the road ahead for assessing and assigning new floating offshore wind areas along the Norwegian coast. We will also discuss the critical need for co-existence with other stakeholders. We will then consider whether these can be used as best practice for the Australian context.