“The train is running. Offshore wind is happening.” “Europe is on a roll, but Norway is struggling to keep up.” “Building competence is one thing, keeping it is another.” These are a few of the many statements about offshore wind the speakers at the High Wind conference shared with us. The overall opinion was that the future of offshore wind is bright, but one of the biggest obstacles is still the pace.

More than 350 participants and 30 speakers from all over the world joined in to answer all our burning questions about offshore wind, new innovative technologies, and the future of this potential market on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

Elena Beinau, Senior Advisor – Energy Infrastructure, WindEurope, set the status of the day by explaining that we are currently 30GW short of the EU targets on offshore wind. The reasons behind this are the permitting process, supply chain bottlenecks, auctions and grids. Luckily for Norway, despite current challenges:

The long-term industry outlook is positive, according to Katrine Kleppan Blystad, EVP Global Head of Energy – Corporate Banking, DNB.

Our offshore wind committee member, Richard den Hollander, Global Business Development & Key Account Director, Seaway7, participated in the panel “Gap between the political ambitions and capacity in the supply chain”. In this session with Øistein Johannessen, Industry Coordinator Offshore Wind, Equinor, and Stewart McMahon, Senior Vice-President, Corporate Finance & Origination, Corio Generation, they discussed bottlenecks in the supply chain and how to solve it.

One key factor to succeed with is that everyone must make money. Projects must be profitable both for developer and supplier, said Øistein Johannessen, Industry coordinator offshore wind, Equinor.

At ONS 2024 in our Net Zero Markets arena, we will continue the discussions from High Wind. Offshore wind is one of the five core areas we explore and our offshore wind committee have been working tirelessly with our programme manager, Anne Blomberg, to put together the best programme possible for you this August.

A designated “Offshore Wind Day” on Wednesday will delve into topics such as the offshore wind supply chain, opportunities, and bottlenecks, as well as offshore grid development and the workforce's competence requirements within the sector.