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Norwegian Offshore Wind Power -- Spatial Planning Using Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis
  • Ida Marie Solbrekke,
  • Asgeir Sorteberg
Ida Marie Solbrekke
NORCE Norwegian Research Centre AS
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Asgeir Sorteberg
University of Bergen

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Abstract

The Norwegian government recently agreed on the goal 30by40 which involves opening Norwegian offshore areas to host 30 GW of installed wind power by 2040 (Regjeringen, 2022).We address this goal by presenting a first mapping of wind power suitability scores (WPSS) for the entire Norwegian economic zone (NEZ) using a multi-criteria decision analysis framework (MCDA), including an analytical hierarchical process (AHP) approach. We obtain WPSS considering relevant criteria like wind resources, techno-economic aspects, social acceptance, environmental considerations, and met-ocean constraints such as wind and wave conditions. The results starts with a baseline scenario, where the criteria importance are pair-vise compared in the context of balancing economic incentives and conflicting interests. Additionally, to reveal regions that are robust to changes in criteria importance we carry out a sensitivity analysis by introducing three additional scenarios. These scenarios represent actors with distinct preferences for siting of wind farms: the investor, the environmentalist, and the fisherman. The results show that the southern part of the NEZ is the most suitable region for offshore wind power deployment. This region receives the highest suitability category (“very high” suitability for wind power application) throughout all the scenarios. Areas in the Norwegian part of the Barents Sea and the near-coastal areas outside mid-Norway are also well suited regions, but these are more sensitive to the choice of criteria importance. The use of AHP within the framework of MCDA is shown to be a promising tool for pinpointing the best Norwegian offshore areas for wind power application.
04 Jul 20231st Revision Received
05 Jul 2023Submission Checks Completed
05 Jul 2023Assigned to Editor
05 Jul 2023Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
09 Jul 2023Reviewer(s) Assigned
27 Aug 2023Editorial Decision: Accept