Dear ladies and gentlemen
I would like to thank for the invitation to come here to Utsira. It is a great honour for me to make the official opening of the Utsira "Wind – Hydrogen Project".

From now on, 10 of the households on the island of Utsira will get all their electricity in the form of local produced renewable energy. This is the world's first full-scale autonomous renewable energy system based on wind power and hydrogen. Through this project, the Norwegian energy company Hydro and the German wind energy company Enercon will demonstrate how a community can provide for its energy needs quite independently of fossil fuels or centralized energy production.

Utsira is the smallest municipality in Norway. It is as you all can see, a small isolated island in the North Sea surrounded by the wild ocean and rough natural forces. This makes the inhabitants of Utsira strong and independent – just as this new energy supply system.

The rough natural forces – the energy in wind sweeping over this island – are the basis for the energy supply in this demonstration project. Whereas hydrogen, the simplest element in the universe, is the energy carrier which is balancing production and consumption of energy.

The system consists of two wind turbines – an electrolyzer – a storage system and a fuel cell. Such an integration of this novel technology makes this project one of the most innovative and future-oriented energy projects in the world.

I would therefore like to congratulate Hydro, Enercon and the inhabitants of Utsira.

The Utsira project is one step in Hydro's involvement in hydrogen and renewable energy sources. Hydro is one of the leading energy companies in Europe, with a large production of both natural gas and renewable energy, and with 75 years of experience in water electrolysis for fertilizer production. This makes hydrogen a natural focus area for Hydro. Hydro is also involved in several other international projects where hydrogen is used as an energy carrier or as a transport fuel.

The German company Enercon is a pioneer within the wind power technology – and is therefore a natural partner in this project. They are one of the world's largest producers of wind turbines and contribute in this project, both with technology and with a considerable workload.

A key factor in such new and innovative projects is "public acceptance". The inhabitants of Utsira are actually an important part of the project, on the consumer side. The consumers demand safe and reliable energy supply – and that is the main challenge in the project. Those of you who are connected to this energy system have met this project with great interest and an open mind. Perhaps because you realize that you now will be a part of the energy future.

Conventional use of fossil energy may lead to harmful emissions and climate changes. It is therefore necessary to invest more in research and development of renewable energy and environmentally friendly energy carriers. As we observe the increase in energy demand these issues become more important.

The authorities' role is to push the market and arrange the necessary framework for the market development. It is necessary to give financial support to new energy solutions so that they can be offered as competitive alternatives in the market. This is now being done trough Enova. Our objective is that Enova shall trigger off savings- and new renewable production projects which by 2010 sum up to 10 TWh/year.

Research and development of new energy technologies is an important and integrated part of our energy policy. For 2004 the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has allocated approximately 180 million kroner to energy research programmes.

There are two main objectives behind the authorities' support for energy R&D; firstly, the funding is intended to maintain the prominent position held by Norwegian energy-related industry internationally. Public funding is necessary to develop expertise that industrial companies and researchers can use in their long-term strategies.

Secondly, such support is intended to promote the development of new energy technologies and innovative solutions and thus create a more efficient and environmentally sound energy supply system. A strong focus on research and development is important to be able to meet the challenges we are facing in the energy sector today.

I am proud that the project has received economic support from the Norwegian Government through Enova, the Norwegian Research Council and the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority.

With this project we see that Hydro and Enercon are taking these challenges seriously.

It is an honour for me to declare the world's first "stand alone wind-power and hydrogen" project officially for opened!