An analysis of wind statistics that Sintef has recently carried out shows that there is no systematic correlation in time between the occurrence of windy oceanic conditions in southern and northern Norway.
There is also little covariance between periods of windy conditions in southern and northern Norway. This is good news for Norway’s ambitions in the field of offshore windpower development. The findings serve to increase the likelihood that when electricity customers demand power, the wind will always be blowing at least somewhere along the Norwegian coast. This will increase the value of Norwegian offshore wind energy and reduce the need for balancing measures in the electricity supply system. However, all this is contingent on not clustering wind farms too closely together.
The study was based on 29 years of chronological wind data taken from 15 areas previously identified by the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) as potential wind farm sites. The areas are spread from the ‘Sørlig Nordsjø II” concession in the far south to Sandskallen offshore western Finnmark in the north. They have also included three areas located off the coasts of other countries bordering the North Sea. These are the UK Dogger Bank, a location close to the coast of Jutland in Denmark, and another in the German sector of the Baltic Sea.
