Ministers and senior officials from some of Europe's key offshore wind growth markets refused to rule out future use of controversial ‘negative bidding’ auction mechanisms as they unlock major new areas for floating and fixed-bottom development to meet swelling national targets.

Policy leaders were quizzed at the opening panel session of the FOWT 2022 floating wind event in Montpellier, France, over the possible role of negative bidding – where auction winners effectively pay the government for the right to build a project – in scaling up national turbine fleets.