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Major wind research centre kicks off its activities

Published on: 16. June 2021
Author: Juliet Landrø

The NorthWind research centre on wind energy launched its activities today with its first General Assembly.  

Major wind research centre kicks off its activities

The centre's research is divided into five work packages, whose leaders gave short presentations outlining their objectives for the next few years. The centre aims at making wind energy cheaper, more efficient and more sustainable. One of its main areas of focus is offshore wind research. 

John Olav Tande from SINTEF leads NorthWind.

John Olav Tande from SINTEF leads NorthWind.

 Centre leader and chief scientist at SINTEF, John Olav Tande, says that large cost reductions are within reach for both bottom-fixed and floating offshore wind energy, but that these cost reductions won't come automatically.  

— The road to success in offshore wind depends on three factors: development, research and innovation. All three have to be present, says Tande. 

—NorthWind will guarantee progress on the research and innovation fronts. The development part of the equation received a welcome boost last week, when the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy announced plans to enable the large-scale development of offshore wind, he says  

NorthWind brings together over 50 partners from research institutions and industry all around the world. It is led by the research institute SINTEF, with partners NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), NINA (The Norwegian Institute for Nature Research), NGI (Norwegian Geotechnical Institute) and UiO (University of Oslo). 

Nature friendly renewable energy 

The UN's sustainability goals, which are the world's action plan for a better world, have several goals that hit the mark with NorthWind. The goals of clean energy and climate action are obvious. At the same time development of wind energy must not must not be at the expense of sustainability goals for life at sea and on land. 

NINA-director Norunn Myklebust.

NINA-director Norunn Myklebust.

— At NINA, we have extensive knowledge of how the natural environment can be affected by wind power, and our goal is to develop possible solutions that reduce negative impacts. The key words are location, design and operation, says NINA director Norunn Myklebust. 

She believes the research center NorthWind has a big and important job to do. 

— In this center we have gathered the foremost expertise in nature, technology and society, and I believe NorthWind will contribute to strengthening Norway as a renewable nation, with good solutions that consider all the sustainability goals in a good way, says Myklebust. 

NorthWind is co-financed by its partners and by the Norwegian government through the Norwegian Research Council's Centres for Environment-friendly Energy Research program.  

You can learn more about the research centre on its new website: www.northwindresearch.no  

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