Flagship Festival for floating wind attracts more than 20 nations to Norway

May 19, 2023

Norway gathers the global floating offshore wind industry May 24-25 in the west coast city of Haugesund. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre will participate to discuss the energy situation in Europe.

While Norway´s first floating offshore wind park Utsira Nord is on auction, the country hosts an international meeting place dedicated to floating offshore wind technology and development.

Floating Wind Days aims to be a festival and a fresh breeze amongst traditional energy conferences. Delegations are coming in from the US, Japan and South Korea, as well as the main European markets. Japan will have the biggest delegation, following the recent signing of an MOU between Japan Wind Power Association and Norwegian Offshore Wind – the latter being the organizer behind Floating Wind Days.

Recently, Norway was ranked as number two in 4C Offshore´s analysis of the most interesting markets for floating wind in the world. The UK was on top of the list.

“Our ambition is that Norway will become world-leading within the floating offshore wind industry. With our assets, we believe that it´s possible to build on our already strong position”, says Arvid Nesse, manager of Norwegian Offshore Wind.

Norway is home to the first floating turbine in the world, still being tested outside the coast of Haugesund. In 2021, this turbine got company when TetraSpar was installed at the METCentre test site. During Floating Wind Days, all participants will take a boat trip out to see the two turbines.

Among the top international speakers are David Hochschild, Chair of California Energy Commission, Gabriel Davies, head of Floating Wind in Ørsted, Shigeru Yasu from the Japan Wind Power Association and UK Offshore Wind Champion Timothy Pick. The program includes more than a hundred speakers.

“With our position in this industry, we think it is natural that Norway is the host country for discussions on how to move floating offshore wind forward”, says Nesse.

Italy, France, the US, Japan, South Korea, the UK, Ireland, Spain and Portugal are the markets featured at Floating Wind Days, and visitors from 20 countries are coming.