Planned floating wind arrays at Norway’s Utsira North zone may need more than three times as much state aid as the bottom-fixed Southern North Sea 2 area that already triggered a fierce political discussion about the cost of offshore wind, new calculations have shown.

Norway in March said a first 1.5GW phase of Southern North Sea 2 would be tendered off in an auction for the lowest support price later this year, while Utsira North will be divided in three up-to-500MW arrays to be awarded in a competitive allocation based on qualitative criteria.