"I believe that politics and markets will adjust, and that is also necessary in order to keep up the pace of offshore wind developments," Paal Eitrheim told Reuters on the sideline of the Norwegian company's autumn conference in Oslo.
The offshore wind industry has found itself in a perfect storm of rising inflation, interest rate hikes and supply chain bottlenecks, in some cases leading to project cancellations as support schemes failed to adjust.
Similarly, Britain has adjusted the price for next year's renewables auction higher by 66%, after failing to attract offshore wind bids in the previous round.
Equinor is considering extensions to existing offshore wind farms in Britain that could qualify for auctions in future, and Eitrheim defended higher prices in the near term after over a decade of cost reductions.
"Although it's dramatic right now, I think, as we are building this supply chain, we are going to come back to a price level for offshore wind that is competitive for governments, for companies and also consumers."
Persons:
Paal Eitrheim, Equinor, Eitrheim, Nora Buli, Terje Solsvik, Mark Potter
Organizations:
ASA, Bp, Reuters, BP, York, Thomson
Locations:
OSLO, United States, Britain, Norwegian, Oslo, York, New York