The world’s first full-scale floating wind turbine, the 2.3MW Hywind, being assembled in the Åmøy Fjord near Stavanger, Norway in 2009 (Lars Christopher/CC BY-SA 2.0)

Norway has again proposed offering subsidies worth some $3.3bn to encourage bids in the country’s first tender for a floating wind farm, Reuters reports.

The figure appeared yesterday in the government’s 2025 budget proposal. It’s in line with a preliminary proposal made in June.

The government will be seeking bids to develop a floating, 500MW wind farm at Utsira Nord off the coast of southern Norway near Haugesund.

Last month, industry body Norwegian Offshore Wind expressed disappointment that the government was proceeding with just one farm instead of the expected two.

Reuters said at least 13 consortia and individual firms have expressed interest in the tender.

Energy minister Terje Aasland said the support was needed because the sector was immature.

“Norway has enormous potential for floating offshore wind on its continental shelf, but because the technology is still immature and expensive, government support is needed to speed up development,” he said.

Another factor is that the expected cost of building floating wind farms in Norway has risen compared with earlier forecasts as a result of inflation in the turbine industry.

However, Norway has some experience in the area. In August last year, oil producer Equinor opened Hywind Tampen, the world’s largest floating wind farm so far.

Its 11 turbines produce 88MW for Equinor’s offshore oil and gas platforms.

It used a novel technique to anchor the turbines to the seafloor, and the electricity produced covers around 35% of what is needed to power five platforms.