Ingka Group – the owner of furniture giant IKEA – will enter Norway’s race to deploy floating wind.
The group’s Ingka Investments arm has joined the UtsiraVIND consortium of companies bidding in the Utsira Nord tender process underway as part of the Norwegian government’s first award of large-sale offshore wind leases.
Ingka joined Japanese utility Kansai as a new member of the bidding group, which already included floating technology specialist Odfjell Oceanwind and renewables group Source Galileo.
Ingka has become a regular investor in clean energy projects across Europe and beyond, most recently as part of groups looking to deliver offshore wind in Sweden and Finland.
Ingka’s head of renewable energy Frederik de Jong said: “This partnership is a further step to expand our investment activities to address climate footprint reduction well beyond our retail consumption, and into the IKEA value chain."
Utsira Nord aims to tender off 1.5GW of acreage for three 500MW floating wind projects, a process that alongside a parallel same-sized first phase in the southern North Sea likely to go to fixed-bottom developments marks Norway’s first major offshore wind foray.
The winners of Utsira Nord are due to be named late this year after a qualitative selection process.
