Welcome to the NTRANS partner lunch box webinar!

Agenda Wednesday 28 September at 12-13.00

This time Hylke Havinga, a Dutch master student following the master Innovation Sciences at the University of Utrecht, will give us a presentation regarding the interactions between floating- and fixed-bottom offshore wind in Norway.

Title of the master’s thesis: “Diversification or fierce competition? Interactions between nascent floating offshore wind and maturing fixed-bottom offshore wind in Norway”

There will be time for questions and discussion after the presentation.

Abstract 

In the current transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, many novel technologies, such as offshore wind, are emerging. Fixed-bottom offshore wind is widely exploited throughout the shallow waters in Europe and is thus seen as a maturing technology part of the European power regime. A new application of offshore wind has emerged, floating wind, which has impressive anticipated market potential for deep waters but needs technological development in a niche. However, in some countries, there is no market for offshore wind yet. Therefore, both the maturing technology of fixed-bottom wind and the nascent technology of floating wind will need to be developed in a market niche. Hence, this master thesis researches the ambiguity between the interactions between the nascent innovation system of floating wind and the maturing innovation system of fixed-bottom wind to see how it affects the development of floating wind. The interactions are derived from a combination of interactions between technological innovation systems and niche-niche and niche-regimes. The four conceptualized interaction types for the niche-niche interaction are: negative competition and positive collaboration, and the niche-regime interactions are negative resistance and positive diversification.

The case of Norway is used, as Norwegian actors are participating in the European regime of fixed-bottom wind, while also showing ambitions in creating a domestic floating wind market. Through an exploratory case study of 19 interviews of Norwegian stakeholders in offshore wind, this study analyzed the four different interaction types between the two technologies. Primarily positive interactions between the technological innovation systems were observed, from the niche-niche interaction collaboration as a niche-regime interaction diversification. Additionally, some negative interactions were also observed, although this is primarily foreseen when the offshore wind market in Norway is maturing. As fixed-bottom wind dynamically displays interactions characterized by both a niche and a regime, a new theoretical concept is introduced, a maturing niche. This study concludes that floating wind is primarily enabled by a positive interaction between floating- and fixed-bottom wind.

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Welcome!

Best regards,
Tomas Moe Skjølsvold, Vice Director NTRANS