The Norwegian Offshore Wind Paradox

Ignacio Herrera Anchustegui, from the Faculty of Law, UiB, will present his views on the "The Norwegian Offshore Wind Paradox".

Abstract: Norway possesses one of the best wind resources in Europe and arguably the world, and it is a country that prides itself on a policy of renewable electricity generation through hydropower. Equinor SA (formerly Statoil, a Norwegian publicly owned company) is one of the world’s leaders in offshore wind electricity generation – with a strong presence in the UK and the US -, and in an industry in fast development. Also, other offshore wind industry players – such as shipping companies or turbine developers – are based in Norway.

Despite this, the Norwegian State lacks detailed regulation for offshore wind farms installation and operation – currently an administrative regulation is being discussed – and has not authorized any areas for offshore wind electricity generation activity. In fact, opposition to windfarms (especially onshore) is widespread among the Norwegian population and politicians. This paper aims to discuss the reasons why such opposition has existed and evaluate the existing and proposed legal regimes and whether such regimes would incentivize (or not) offshore wind electricity generation activity to move deeper into the Green Energy Transition and further develop offshore wind technology.

This seminar will be held at Seminar room 645, Faculty of Social Sciences (Fosswinckels gate 6), from 12:15 to 13:00 (we open the doors at 12:00). As always it is free and open to all interested parties, so bring your lunch and join us for an interesting presentation followed bya Q&A session.

The presentation from this talk is attached below.