A large Norwegian offshore wind industry canprovide 50,000 new jobs, 80 billion in annual value creation and 100 billion inannual export value.
This is reported in a socio-economic analysis carried out by THEMA Consulting Group on behalf of Agder Energi, Green Investment Group (now Corio Generation) and Vårgrønn, which have entered into cooperation to build an offshore wind farm in the Southern North Sea II. The analysis supports the Norwegians government’s aim of building new green industry and Norwegian jobs.
50 GW corresponds to an annual power production of 200 TWh, i. e greater than the total Norwegian power production in the record year 2020, when 154.2 TWh was produced from hydropower plants and wind power plants on land.
In addition to covering the mainland industry's power needs and revenues from power exports, value creation and jobs are directly linked to the offshore wind industry. The southern part of the North Sea can, with the right demands from the Norwegian authorities, create a large domestic market for the Norwegian supplier industry - and act as a springboard for exporting goods and services to the rest of the world.
This time we are in fierce competition. The countries around us have completed their studies and are now developing large-scale offshore wind in the North Sea area. The sooner we get started, the better positioned we will be to create an international supplier industry, says Olav Hetland, CEO of Vårgrønn.
The British have set a goal of increasing the British share of deliveries to their domestic market for offshore wind to 60 per cent by 2030. With a Norwegian share in the projects, roughly in line with the British ambition, the total employment effect of the offshore wind industry can be as much as 55,000 man-labour-years in 2050. This provides the basis for an annual value creation of NOK 80 billion from the Norwegian supplier industry, nationally and internationally.
The international perspective is important to take into consideration. A global green transition is underway with the development of renewable energy, and Norway needs new opportunities to create value and jobs, since activity within oil and gas on the Norwegian shelf will decrease in the years ahead. It gives us great opportunities, but we have to seize them now. Because while hydropower and petroleum were rooted in Norway, wind is a resource accessible across the world, says Olav Hetland, CEO of Vårgrønn.
Total employment effect per county (man-labour-years, 2050)
The graph below shows the result from the regional distribution of the estimated employment effects in 2050. As can be seen, it is especially along the coast in Vestland, Rogaland and Agder that large employment effects are estimated, in addition to Oslo and Viken. In addition, it is shown, in per cent, how manyman-labour-years the employment constitutes relative to the number of employees in industry, mining and quarrying in the individual county in 2020.
