DNV GL to Study Biodiversity Options for Nordic Offshore Wind Projects

DNV GL will investigate how to best accommodate biodiversity in offshore wind projects in the Nordic region under a contract the company was recently awarded.

Nordic Energy Research, a platform for cooperative energy research and policy development under the auspices of the Nordic Council of Ministers, has selected DNV GL through a competitive tender looking for research and development consultancy services on accommodating biodiversity in Nordic offshore wind projects.

The company will perform a study exploring how the projects can avoid, mitigate, or compensate for biodiversity impacts. The study will provide a key input to the Nordic ministerial meeting in September 2021, according to Nordic Energy Research.

DNV GL will also provide examples of best practices from projects in the region and/or neighbouring countries, which will inform regulators and stakeholders with a view to increase the share of renewables in the Nordic energy system.

Of the five Nordic countries, Denmark, Sweden and Norway have come the furthest with offshore wind development.

Denmark, the home of the world’s first offshore wind farm, has already taken the next step in offshore wind development and started working on the world’s first energy islands and the accompanying offshore wind farms in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. The country has also announced that it will cancel all future licensing rounds for oil and gas and end existing production by 2050.

In Norway, where the largest floating wind farm is currently under construction, a pre-application period for offshore wind licencing is under way, after the country opened two new areas for offshore wind last year. The Utsira Nord and Sørlige Nordsjø II areas, which already attracted significant interest from developers, can together accommodate an installed capacity of 4.5 GW.

Several new projects have been proposed to be built off Sweden’s coast over the past year, including a 1+ GW offshore wind farm that would combine floating and fixed-bottom foundations, a 1.5 GW project off Skåne County, and Swedish part of the Kriegers Flak project which is already connecting Denmark and Germany.