Norway began its first auction on Monday for the right to build a commercial offshore wind farm, offering up to 1.5 gigawatts (GW) of capacity in what the government hopes will be the start of a massive development of renewable electricity.
"Bids are coming in ... This is a very good day for Norway," Energy Minister Terje Aasland told NRK radio later in the day, after it was announced the auction would continue on Tuesday.
Some analysts had feared no bids would be made amid soaring developing costs for the global offshore wind industry.
"The auction has continued throughout the day and has taken a break. The auction will start again at 09.00 (local time) tomorrow, Tuesday," the energy ministry told Reuters.
The ministry will present the winner when bidding ends. It declined to say how many groups were involved in the bidding.
"I hope for a good auction with several strong players who want to develop offshore wind at Soerlige Nordsjoe II," Astrid Bergmaal, state secretary at Norway's energy ministry, told Reuters ahead of the 0800 GMT bidding start.
Soerlige Nordsjoe II is close to Norway's North Sea border with Denmark and some 200 kilometres (124 miles) from Norwegian shores. It is part of the government's wider ambition to offer 30 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2040.
The descending-bids auction offers state support through a 15-year contract for difference (CfD) nominated in Norwegian oere per kilowatt hour (kWh), and capped at a total of 23 billion Norwegian crowns ($2.17 billion).
Five groups pre-qualified for the auction in February but Germany's EnBW has since confirmed that it would not participate.
"The key factors in EnBW's decision were the requirement for the developer to build and own the high-voltage direct current transmission connector and the limitation of state support," the company said.
The remaining groups are:
While Shell and others have raised questions over the project's profitability, all four groups declined to say if they would bid when asked by Reuters.
The offshore wind industry is struggling with cost increases from rising interest rates and supply chain bottlenecks. Big names such as Orsted, Vattenfall, TotalEnergies and Iberdrola dropped plans to participate in the auction.
($1 = 10.6081 Norwegian crowns)
(Reuters - Reporting by Nora Buli in Oslo; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Susan Fenton and Mark Potter)