Greek offshore wind plan triggers Norwegian expertise

A joint seminar between the Hellenic Wind Power (Eletaen) and Norwegian Offshore Wind (NOW) counted close to 300 participants in Athens last week. 9 member companies in NOW came to visit, and the Greek Energy Minister Theodoros Skylakakis were among the distinguished speakers. 

PGS is one of the companies that are now seeing new commercial opportunities in Greece. They provide integrated geophysics data for offshore windfarm projects. The company has been active in the energy industry for decades and has now seen opportunities in offshore wind in general, and Greece in particular.  

-Our legacy from offshore oil and gas and with an established strong brand name in Greece, give us a head-start in this market, says Gunhild Myhr, Head of Business Development for New Energies Offshore Wind in PGS.     

Business opportunities at an early stage

Greece has set ambitious targets and has adopted a regulatory framework for the roll out of offshore wind. According to Global Wind Atlas, Greece has some of the best wind conditions in the Mediterranean. A draft of the Offshore Wind Farm Organized Development Areas (OWFODA) was presented earlier this month. The draft will be sent out for public consultation and the final OWFODA is expected around H1 2024. 

The plan qualifies ten (10) eligible areas for development by 2030-2032, with a total capacity of approximately 4.9 GW, mainly for floating projects. During the spring of 2024 HEREMA, the regulatory body, will announce the deadline for applications for Exploration Licences within OWFODA. The exploration licenses give permits (not exclusively) for the developer to conduct surveys of the areas such as metocean and site investigations that will pave the way for the auction process. Also, environmental studies and pre-feed studies are relevant. 

-For Norwegian companies providing such surveys and other relevant services for the developer, it´s time to act now, says Tor Arne Johnsen, responsible for the Greek market in Norwegian Offshore Wind.  

Early movers likely to succeed

Geoprovider and PGS are good examples of companies who could benefit from going into the Greek market at this stage. 

 -Geophysical data will be a central activity in the exploration licenses in all ten eligible areas. We had 11 back-to-back meetings with relevant stakeholders in the Greek market during this visit, which clearly shows the commercial opportunities and interest for our services from the Greek side, says Gunhild Myhr. 

PGS and eight other companies were part of the Visit NOW Greece and got the opportunities to learn more about the Greek offshore wind market, meet with relevant wind farm developers and organise meetings with relevant partners. The companies could also visit ONEX, a port owner, and the Port of Elefsina. 

-Companies such as PGS, Geoprovider and Wise Group are early movers into a market that is quite interesting and has gone under the radar for many other service providers in offshore wind, says Tor Arne Johnsen. 

He points out that Greek companies are eager to learn from the Norwegian supply chain and keen on establishing partnerships. Source Galileo Norge, Aventa, Moreld Ocean Wind, X1 Wind, Deep Wind Offshore and Simonsen Vogt Wiig are all early movers in the market and participated in the Visit NOW last week. 

-The early mover strategy could give these companies a head-start in an emerging offshore wind market. We urge more of these kinds of companies to join our visits, says Johnsen.

The visit was supported by a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway through the EEA Grants 2014-2021, in the frame of the Programme "Business Innovation Greece", within the project GR-INNO-SGS2 Soft Measures - HWEA/ELETAEN.