OSLO, March 20 (Reuters) - The Ventyr group, owned by Japanese power companies and IKEA store owner Ingka, won Norway's first offshore wind farm tender to build 1.5 gigawatts (GW) of capacity in the North Sea, the energy ministry said on Wednesday.

The government hopes the auction for the right to build bottom-fixed wind turbines will be the starting point for massive offshore power developments in the years leading up to 2040.

"This is a milestone for the government's offshore wind ambition," Energy Minister Terje Aasland told a press conference.

Ventyr's owners are Ingka Group, the owner of most IKEA stores, and Parkwind, majority owned by Japan's Jera, a 50-50 joint venture between a unit of Tokyo Electric Power Company (9501.T) , opens new tab and Chubu Electric Power (9502.T) , opens new tab.

The descending-bids auction resulted in a subsidy for the winner of 1.15 crown ($0.1076) per kilowatt hour of electricity under a 15-year contract for difference (CfD) capped in advance at a total of 23 billion crowns.

The winner of the Soerlige Nordsjoe II tender beat out bids from one other participant, as only two out of the five pre-qualified groups participated in the auction, the ministry said. It did not name the losing bidder.

One of the five, Germany's Energie Baden-Wurttemberg (EnBW), had pulled out of the process ahead of the auction.

The remaining groups that did not win were a consortium between Aker Offshore Wind, BP (BP.L) , opens new tab and Statkraft, another between Equinor (EQNR.OL) , opens new tab and RWE (RWEG.DE) , opens new tab and a joint project proposed by Shell (SHEL.L) , opens new tab, Lyse and Eviny.

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https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/norway-awards-first-offshore-wind-tender-swedens-ingka-japans-parkwind-2024-03-20/