Abstract
The use of loan agreements will be a necessity when financing offshore wind projects in Norway. For financial institutions, it will be important to have proper security for their loans. This is feasible though with mortgages in connection with the loan agreement. To make this an attractive option it is important to have a legal framework that supports an efficient use of mortgages in this industry. The new Offshore Energy Act (hereinafter: OEA), together with the older Energy Act (hereinafter: EA), will be important elements in the regulatory framework for offshore wind power. However, some important regulatory aspects are lacking in order to simplify the financing of offshore wind power. In lack of better regulations, developers will most often fall back to solutions in the Mortgage Act (hereinafter: MA), which may not provide a sufficient security for the financial institutions. For offshore wind industry to develop, it is therefore necessary with certain adjustments in the legal framework.
The aim of this thesis is to assess the legal problems of financing offshore wind power projects. It will specially be focused on the need for loan-agreements in financing projects and whether financial institutions, within the current legal framework, can use a mortgage in concessions or structures as an instrument to achieve security for the loans provided. Comparisons to windmills built within the private land property will be important, as there are significant differences in the legal framework, depending on the windmills being built inside or outside this boundary. Also comparisons to the petroleum and aquaculture industry will be important aspects in examining the legal framework. The thesis will disclose insufficiencies in the legal framework for securing mortgage agreements and hopefully provide potentially improvements.