Very nice to welcome you to this second quarter presentation of Bonheur. My name is Anette Olsen, and I am the Managing Director of Bonheur and also Fred. Olsen & Co. Today, we are going to start a little differently than usual. We have a video to show you. It's a video presentation that Fred. Olsen 1848 has produced to introduce you to the floating wind foundation that we are developing in the company. Please start the video.
Building on experience since 1848 as industry leader in the maritime and energy sector, we continue to develop tomorrow's energy technologies to shape a sustainable future. That is why we are proud to introduce BRUNEL, a pioneering floating foundation designed for the next generation of wind turbines to unlock the potential of floating offshore wind. Fred. Olsen 1848 is determined to solve the main challenges within floating wind, industrialization, and deployment at scale. With BRUNEL's semi-submersible structure and modular design based on steel tubulars also used for monopiles and wind towers, we can manufacture and assemble foundations at a volume needed for the floating giga parks. The modular design enables us to leverage the existing supply chain and help create a sustainable industry. BRUNEL utilizes proven technologies and is built as an integrated structure from nacelle to mooring. This reduces interfaces and simplifies design responsibilities.
Featuring a single point mooring through a turret, the weathervaning function allows for a passive ballast system and a structure optimized towards the wind thrust force. BRUNEL is designed with a radical focus on serial and automated mass production, and offers several assembly methods that are flexible and adjusted to fit specific projects and customer needs to optimize the use of local port infrastructure. This results in the most efficient use of resources, low LCOE, and competitive pricing. BRUNEL, taking floating offshore wind into the industrial era.
Well, hopefully you enjoyed this introduction. We will now continue with the presentations, starting with our CFO in Fred. Olsen & Co., Richard Olav Aa. We have three of our CEOs present today. Alexandra Koefoed from Fred. Olsen Windcarrier, Anders Bade from Fred. Olsen Renewables, and Lars Bender from Fred. Olsen Seawind. We will do the presentations, and then at the end, open for questions. Richard, please.
Thank you. Yeah. Hearty welcome to this second quarter presentation from me. I think there are two things that I would like to mention at the start. We have strong improvements in our financial results due to the very good results in Fred. Olsen Renewables, and in particular due to the high electricity prices. Secondly, it's the strategic importance of the establishment of Wind Fund 1 that we will come back to in more detail in the presentation. Also those really the two highlights in this report, strongly improved results and establishment of Wind Fund 1. Let's get started on the presentation, moving from left to right, starting with renewables.
That has a result, an EBITDA of NOK 502 million, which an improvement of about NOK 300 million from the second quarter last year. This is mainly driven by high power prices, but also more generation as we now have Högaliden up and running. Anders shall come back to that. Högaliden II, which is our next wind farm, which is an extension of Högaliden, is now continuing toward construction next summer. In general, there are high development activities in all the business areas in Fred. Olsen Renewables. As I said, establishment of Hvitsten AS, which is the fund management company for Wind Fund 1, which has now NOK 480 million committed financing from three long-term infrastructure investors in place, and that we'll cover in more detail.
Moving on to wind service, an EBITDA of NOK 106 million. That is down from NOK 271 million second quarter last year. The main reason for the reduction in the EBITDA is that utilization of the three Tern vessels was around 50%, where it was almost 100% second quarter last year. This is due to planned yard stays for two of the vessels and the large crane upgrade and the conversion of Bold Tern in particular. Now coming out of the second quarter, we have all the three vessels back in the water, and they will now work towards a very strong backlog of NOK 530 million.
There is a good outlook now both in the short term for the rest of this year, but also for the longer term for 2023 and 2024 and 2025, where we have a significant backlog of NOK 530 million. Also in this quarter, FOWIC signed a major contract of EUR 150 million , and that is included now in the backlog of NOK 530 million. The conversion of Bold Tern, which Alexandra will cover in detail, was complete in this quarter, slightly delayed, but within the budget of EUR 61 million . Moving on to cruise, s trongly improved results from a loss of NOK 179 million second quarter last year to a loss of NOK 42 million this quarter. Last year, we had no ships in the water due to the COVID situation.
We have had Bolette and Borealis cruising the third quarter, and Balmoral was mobilized in May and gradually came then into sailing towards the end of May and into June. The occupancy has been 73%. It's lower than we had hoped for, but still a significant improvement compared to the fourth quarter and the first quarter. The bunker cost is a main concern for the cruise industry and also Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines. We have very high bunker cost in the quarter. We're also taking cost on mobilization of Balmoral in May. The demand for cruises now in the summer is very good, and we also have very strong bookings for the peak season and the summer season next year.
We will say that there is increased uncertainty now in general for the U.K. economy in view of the rising prices and inflation, and also that still the COVID outbreak is not under full control. We see last-minute cancellations and also more issues about filling the ships in the winter seasons. Obviously, we also have some negative impact from canceling destinations in Russia, St. Petersburg in particular, and also Ukrainian destinations, maybe Odessa in particular due to the war. Other investments, EBITDA loss of NOK 4 million versus + NOK 25 million last year. Main reason for that is that we had a very positive one-off in the media business, second quarter last year. I don't think I need to comment more on that.
Maybe other than, as you saw in the video, there is very high activity level in Fred. Olsen 1848 on several fronts for both engagement within floating offshore wind and floating solar. Moving to the right, we had revenues this quarter of close to NOK 2.4 billion, up almost NOK 750 million year- on- year, driven by cruise and higher power prices. EBITDA was NOK 562 million, almost a doubling from second quarter last year. We see also the same trends of improvement in the EBIT and the net results after tax. The parent company equity about NOK 6.9 billion, which is the same level as last year, and an equity ratio slightly strengthened to 72%.
The cash in parent stands at NOK 1.3 billion, which is down from NOK 2.1 billion. One reason for that is that we paid a bond loan of NOK 500 million in the quarter, which we haven't refinanced, and also that we have not taken out dividends from the strong results in the renewable energy. On a consolidated level, we have already commented on the development in revenues and EBITDA on a consolidated level, nothing abnormal in depreciation. On the impairment, we have settled the legal dispute around the jack-up vessel Jill that led to a reversal of an earlier impairment of a + NOK 80 million. Net finance costs at the normal level this quarter of -NOK 34 million. We have then an earnings before taxes of close to NOK 300 million in the quarter.
The net result is NOK 161 million. We are in a tax position for the U.K. wind farms and pay significant taxes in the U.K., based on the strong results of the joint ventures in the U.K. The results for the parent company is still negative due to the high losses within the cruise activities, which is then consolidated 100%, while on the Scottish joint ventures, 49% of the economic return is given to the partners. Moving on, to more granular on the revenues. Like I said, close to NOK 750 million improvement on the revenues. The main contributor is in fact, cruise, with an improvement of revenue of NOK 580 million, due to that we now have three ships in the water.
We also see the strong improvement in revenue in renewable energy due to the higher prices and also higher generation, due to Högaliden coming in and somewhat stronger wind in second quarter this year than last year. Wind service, on the other hand, has had slight reduction in revenue, and that is due to the lower utilization of the Tern vessels due to the yard stays. On the EBITDA, we see that the improved revenue in renewable energy transforms directly into improved EBITDA of more than NOK 300 million, an EBITDA of NOK 502 million. Wind service, the reduction of NOK 165 million is related to that we had the Bold Tern and Brave Tern at the yard for the main part of the quarter.
Also some project delays in Global Wind Service, especially in the U.S. On the cruise, still a loss of NOK 42 million, mainly due to that we have faced in Balmoral in the quarter, taking mobilization costs, but also the high bunker prices and occupancy of 73%. That turns into an EBITDA of NOK 562 million for the group of companies, which is up close to NOK 250 million from second quarter last year. To one of the main events in this report, this was released to the stock exchange Tuesday night this week, and this has been a project we've worked on for quite a long time. It's been a very interesting project, and it's a very important project for us.
The headline is that we have established long-term equity fund for onshore wind of close to NOK 5 billion. As you see to the left in this slide, we would like to highlight three features with this structure. It's really a long-term platform, which fits well with our own long-term investment horizon. It's quite innovative, and also very importantly for us, it's competitive financing.
Taking them one by one and starting with the long-term platform, I think then I would like to point your attention to the right-hand side and the name of the investors, because when we started out this initiative, really we're thinking about the two other M&A transactions we had done within onshore wind with TRIG and Aviva, where they acquired 49% in the Scottish wind farms in two M&A transactions. We were thinking the importance of having investors that were like-minded ourselves, that really had a really burning desire to invest long-term in renewables, but also were very long-term on nature. All these three investors, they are so-called buy and hold investors, so they don't have time horizons on their investments, so they can, in principle, invest in this platform forever.
Coming back to the time horizons in the platform. Also, very importantly, we have followed the philosophy for many years of being merchant on the power price. We think that in the long run that is much better, and I've been in the Norwegian power market now for almost 30 years, and I've seen that the merchant strategy by far pans out the best if you have the financial capacity. All these investors are seasoned renewable investors that also share that view that low leverage and a merchant power strategy is the best over time, which was very important for us.
The three investors are then, from the top here, you have MEAG, which is the asset manager of Munich Re, which is the world's largest reinsurance company in the world and one of the largest asset managers in the world and are really into contributing to the green shift and investing significant capital into renewables. We have KLP here in Norway, the largest asset manager in Norway, which also have the same time horizon buy and hold, and really are taking a big step into renewable and make significant investments in variable renewable activities and funds. Then finally, you have Keppel Infrastructure Trust, which is a part of the Keppel and Temasek system in Singapore, a leading Singaporean system for industry and global investments, and also have the buy and hold strategy as the three others.
They complement each other very well geographically. They complement each other very well from a knowledge point of view, but they're also very similar in their desire to invest in renewables and the buy and hold strategy. Carefully selected and fit our strategy very well. In the long term, the fund initially will buy 49% of Lista, Fäbodliden, and Högaliden, and be invested there until the end of the economic life of those wind farms, then they will revert back to us. Then there is a mutual obligation to co-invest 49%-51% in all onshore wind projects that for us will bring to final investment decisions in Sweden and the U.K. until the fund is utilized for five years.
If [Alma & Co.] is very good to bring projects forward quickly. We will utilize the fund well within the five years, and then the fund will be closed, and then we will have to look at new financings. Otherwise, it will run for five years and then close. We and investors will sit together until the end of the economic lifetime of the wind farms. If you just make a simulation that, let's say the last wind farm is invested, taking an investment decision five years from now. It will take about two years to construct, and then there will be a 30 year operation. In principle, it could have this equity fund structure last for 37 years.
It's a very, very long-term view and that's very much supported by us and very much supported by the investors. It comes to the innovation. We could, of course, have continued to do M&A transactions that we did with TRIG and Aviva, but we tried really to think through how we can be more long-term and create a platform that maybe can be used for this but also can be used for other financings, and not least how we can create a platform that can handle future projects for us and not only the wind farms they already have built. We quickly identified that the Norwegian regulations around the funds was very suitable for this, and also investors are very comfortable with Norway as a place for having fund investments.
We worked intensively with the Norwegian financial authorities and received the license for the fund a few weeks ago. That is then regulated and a platform that can do further this and also further infrastructure investments within renewable. We spent a lot of time thinking through how could we then develop a model for how we could also price future projects, so that was not an open end in this structure. We have managed to develop a evaluation method for the project that Anders and his team will bring to FID. At FID, there will be evaluation model based on predefined input parameters, mainly sourced from third parties, and then a fixed cost of capital that we have agreed with the investors.
You will develop at the value for the project at FID. Any development premium will be realized at that point, then the investors will acquire 49% of the project pre-construction. Any development profit will be realized for us at that stage, and us and investors will share the CapEx 51%, 49% going forward through the project. This platform and innovation, how we think about also future projects, but also that it's a licensed and regulating financing platform. It may assist in the development of further diversified financing opportunities for the Bonheur group of companies.
On the competitive side of this, we will receive for the existing three wind farms, which will be acquired 49% of, now, which has been already signed. Those cash proceeds is now estimated to come into the third quarter of EUR 176 million from the 49% in those three wind farms. That equates to a 1.75x return on invested capital for the three wind farms. We have taken the sales proceeds and the cash flow that has been received for the wind farms since they started and divided that by the invested capital to come to the 1.75x return.
Very importantly, Anders will come back to this, how important this is for us, that we then have a five year commitment for further approximately NOK 300 million for new projects. The NOK 480 million is divided then into the NOK 176 million for the three initial wind farms and then approximately NOK 300 million for new projects. Also, mention this development premium that we believe then is set at a very good and best practice evaluation method. It depends on for us how good they are at developing the project, how large that development premium will turn out to be. Yeah. It was a long presentation on this, but I thought it was good to give you an overview on how our thinking has been around it.
We'll certainly also take questions on this today. Moving on to the group capitalization. Again, I would like to point you to the policies there, because what we have now talked about, this Wind Fund 1, it fits so well with our policies. Where we base our policies on three pillars, a strong parent financial position built on conservative leverage and solid liquidity position. Obviously, the establishment of the Wind Fund 1 will enable that for us will be much better equipped to aggressively build out onshore wind without support from the parent. We can maintain our conservative leverage and solid liquidity position.
Also to the second bullet point, we aim to accelerate growth, subsidiaries within the company's high capital growth and capital intensive business segments, in particular then, the wind service segment and also, renewable energy. They're all actively investigating and considering various means of sourcing external capital here under a broad set of equity option, including listing. Of course, this development of the Wind Fund 1 fits very well under the term broad set of equity options because this is, in our opinion, something that's not been done before and really broaden the equity options for us going forward and hopefully, for the group of companies. Then finally, subsidiaries to optimize its own non-recourse financing, taking into account underlying fundamentals for their respective businesses and relative cost of capital.
Here, Bonheur, which we call the project internally fits very well where this is tailor-made to the needs of Vestas and the development onshore wind and the cost of capital is reflecting that. Moving on to the numbers. There are some changes to the numbers this quarter. We have strong cash generation within the renewables. As you see in the joint venture, it's more than NOK 1 billion in cash in the joint ventures at the end of second quarter. Wind service also had a good cash generation, close to NOK 400 million in the joint ventures, both with UWL and the joint venture with Keppel.
Strong cash generation in the Scandinavian wind farms and renewable energy in general, with NOK 388 million in cash by the end of second quarter. Windcarrier, Wind Service, mainly then, Global Wind Service. Good cash position also there, and limited external debt considering the value of the vessels. Cruise lines, we have the debt towards Holland America Line from the acquisition of the new ships. The cash position is quite low considering the size of that business. On the parent, cash position has gone down because we have paid down the bond loan this quarter of NOK 500 million.
We also paid the dividends this quarter, and we've not taken up any dividends or loan repayments from renewable energy, neither the joint ventures or the Scandinavian wind farms. Anyhow, the cash position for the parent and what the parent controls 100% remains strong of close to NOK 2.1 billion up against an external debt of close to NOK 3.4 billion. Be also mindful then that we expect then close to NOK 1.8 billion in cash to be received in the third quarter from the sale of the three Scandinavian wind farms.
Okay.
Yeah.
Anders Bade, you will present Fred. Olsen Renewables.
Yeah.
One of two co-CEOs. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Anette. Good morning to all of you on the call. Today, we will start with a slide on the revenue drivers, as I'm sure that's of high interest this quarter. Then move on to the Wind Fund 1 from Bonheur's perspective. In the end, a couple of slides on the status and progress of the portfolio. Starting with the revenue drivers, you see on the upper left corner the generation and the wind. Generally, Q2 is not a particularly strong wind quarter. This year, wind and production in Scandinavia, Lista and Northern Sweden, has been about normal for Q2 and slightly lower than normal for U.K., but higher than the wind condition last year. We've also, with Högaliden, as Richard mentioned, added the generation capacity.
We expect with Högaliden that our annual generation will increase by 19%. Högaliden has been at full production in Q2. The real important reason for the growth in the EBITDA and revenues, you will see on the power prices in the bottom left corner. Sweden, northern Sweden, at above 50 , significantly lower than the other markets, but that's a solid pricing for northern Sweden. Norway, where we have Lista in NO2, price in NO2, continuing to increase to above 160 . U.K. somewhat coming down in the quarter, but still at a high price.
As we will see soon when we go to the gas prices, we see an uplift again in June for power prices and forward prices in the U.K. in particular, going significantly up for the winter season. The drivers for the price you see on the right-hand side. Normally, both CO2 price and gas price are very important, but now it's almost all about the gas price, which you see on that blue line on that chart. The gas prices came a bit down in Q2 before it increased. The gas prices then increased a lot in June. The forward prices also for gas are expected to significantly increase when we approach the winter season. That provides a very strong market fundamentals for the power prices.
In Scandinavia, the hydrological balance is also important. You can see that Sweden is around normal for the year. Normal in Norway, the hydrological balance is a bit lower than normal. Norway covers a lot of regional differences. In northern Norway, the hydrological balance is strong, while in southern Norway it's weak. In particular, in NO2, where we have Lista, that's the price zone, there with the lowest hydrological balance for this time of the year for more than 20 years. In combination with the very high gas prices, that provides a strong outlook for the power prices also for Lista, in addition to UK in particular. If we then move on to the Wind Fund, as Richard said, this has been long-term work and really important for both Bonheur and Fred. Olsen Renewables in particular.
The fund covers two elements. It's we take in investors 49% of the three existing wind farms. With that, we capture a strong return on those three investments. We have NOK 300 million to finance 49% of new projects. Those projects will be in U.K. and Sweden, which is where we have the most mature portfolio. It includes the consented projects of around 150 MW in U.K. and a bit more than 150 MW in Sweden. This enables continued strong growth and expansion of our portfolio, which is obviously key for us and what we aim to achieve, and also under our majority ownership and control.
It's also been key for us not only to finance this in a strategically right manner, but also to bring in strong international reputable partners, which can provide a platform also for future collaboration and future investments. It will be a full reversion of the wind farms, 100% to FORAS at the end of each wind farm investment period. For Lista, Fäbodliden and I think it's also for the three wind farms above and for future drop downs. With that, we will have the ability in FORAS to fully decide on further life extension or to do the repowering. As said, we will remain majority owner, and we will continue as previously to be the operator of the wind farms. We will also, as Richard said, retain merchant market exposure.
We might pragmatically take on some fixed-term contracts, but we believe in the strong long-term market outlooks, and also the investors share that view. This has probably been one of the key changes in the industry. Previously, it was not possible to find investors that really provided equity for merchant pricing, especially if it didn't have strong ROCs as we have in the U.K. This has been a key element for us to continue to have a merchant price exposure, particularly in the Nordics. This is really a key achievement and a good collaboration with pension company in particular. We go to the next. In the context of Bonheur, we will also update a little bit more on the status of the portfolio.
You see this slide every quarter. Today, we will cover a little bit more on the update on the different markets. In the U.K., we have a bit more than 20 sites under active developments. That covers the 800 MW you see here, with long-term land agreements, plus some sites under exclusivity. Exclusivity is the step in the U.K. before we enter long-term land agreements. We expect once this project become more mature, we have a good chance to have several sites consented annually and ready for construction. We're also waiting now for the determination of the appeal process for the extension of Rothes and Mid Hill, which we expect to be due soon. In Norway, it's been good progress actually in Finnmark. That's all the north, in the north of Norway.
The Norwegian energy authorities are now opening up for the consenting process in municipalities which are positive to onshore wind. In Finnmark, we now have two such projects named Digermulen and Laksefjord. Finnmark is all in the north of Norway, and there's a new 420 kV line built by Statnett nearby. We're adding two projects up there. We are happy to have two of the few projects in Norway which are now able to progress towards the consenting process. Sweden continuing to add portfolio in this quarter. At least as important now is to, as to grow the portfolio, is to mature and develop the portfolio in as good way as possible towards consents.
We are working there, as in other markets, with doing the environmental impact assessments for the sites that they haven't already done that. We are working with stakeholders, including the Sami villages, which we have a good dialogue in relation to in northern Sweden. We are doing the design of the wind farms. We're doing that at an early stage for optimal both financial and production, and for optimal chances of getting consents. In Italy, we put them in the development here. It's not the long-term land agreements that matter because in Italy, you can actually expropriate land when you have a consent.
The 150 MW here, that's for the sites where we have handed in the consent application with the EIA, which is key in Italy to gain site control. We also, obviously in these four markets, are working on an extensive list of additional prospects. That's not included in the figures you see here, and we are selectively pursuing onshore PV. On the next slide, construction activities. Högaliden, all turbines installed, and we have done the site reinstatement this quarter. That's the work that we couldn't do, and there was still snow, but we have now concluded all of that work in Q2. Fäbodliden II, as Richard mentioned, is now continuing towards construction in 2023.
In Scotland, we are progressing the sites we consented last year, Crystal Rig IV, Windy Standard III, and Paul's Hill II, with the pre-construction phase in Q2, and we concluded on the scope definition for potential tenders in Q2. We will also this quarter provide a little bit more info on our floating solar initiative. We have been working systematically on floating solar now for more than three years, and we see a particular role for us in marine environment, nearshore environments. Our strategy has been to build solid progress and a competitive edge on how to build and operate and manage all the technical issues for building floating solar in seawater. We're doing it nearshore, and we will leverage that position, and we're gaining traction with strong local partners for new commercial projects.
The collaboration with SERIS is key for us. SERIS is the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore. They are recognized as the world leader in floating solar, and we are their exclusive industrial partner for marine environment floating solar. Previously, this has been done on freshwater. They recognized our long-term maritime history and also all our experience and competence across the Bonheur and Fred. Olsen companies within marine architecture and all the marine environment aspects. We have mapped more than 40 floater concepts together with SERIS and benchmarked them, and we've done a rigorous risk assessment, not only to understand the different floaters but also to gain kind of real insight across the different floaters. We are progressing to make this bankable, so we are engaging with insurance companies and also independent third parties, including DNV, in risk mapping and qualification work.
We have an excellent collaboration with our sister company, Fred. Olsen 1848, including on wave breaker technology and mooring and anchoring system. We have done lab testing to check how the different systems are coping with including wind and wave, different wind and wave conditions. We have several tools, including initial numerical models, which provides insight on and able to model how this system behaved just using a numerical model. We're leveraging this to gain traction. We have a partnership strategy in the markets similar to what we had on offshore wind in the markets where we don't already have a strong local presence.
We are targeting select countries in Southeast Asia as well as Southern Europe, and in particular in Southeast Asia, where we don't have strong local teams, we have a partnership approach, where we aim to partner with the best strong local power producers and developers. Key characteristics of the target markets include high power prices, good solar irradiation, and lack of available land onshore. What we see is that several countries do not have enough space onshore to deal with onshore PV and wind, and some of the countries also lack wind resources. People live close to the shore in most places. We see floating solar in nearshore locations as key also for the transition in the energy transition. We've established Fred. Olsen Renewables in Singapore as our regional office.
As part of this, we also in this quarter, and we're very pleased with that, together with Fred. Olsen Seawind, we received the Norad grant of NOK 25 million to cover up to 50% of our devex in selected countries in Southeast Asia. That concludes my presentation, and I'm handing back to you, Anette.
Thank you, Anders. Next up is Lars Bender, CEO of Fred. Olsen Seawind.
Thank you. Yes, and also good morning from me. I will give you a presentation of the activities in Q2 in Fred. Olsen Seawind. I will take you through our core markets, Ireland, Scotland, and Norway, and then on the end, I will say a bit about new markets as well. If we start with the first slide. It's been a busy quarter, and it's also been a quarter with a lot of major milestones achieved for our business. One to highlight is definitely the milestone achieved for the Dublin project. The team has, in this quarter, submitted a Maritime Area Consent application, which as you might remember from earlier presentations, is one of the preconditions to participate in the ORESS auction and CfD auction. You need to have a Maritime Area Consent.
That has been submitted, and that's naturally a major milestone for the team, but also a major milestone for Ireland that these are now being submitted because it, of course, is a very important step towards realizing the 5 GW targets towards 2030. In addition to that, the project has also, in this quarter, updated the grid application. They are currently in close dialogue with EirGrid, the local TSO, around the Grid Connection Assessment, which is the other precondition to participate in the auction. In order to participate in the CfD auction, you need two documents from the government basically. One is the Marine Area Consent application, and the other is the Grid Connection Assessment, and both have been submitted this quarter.
Very positive progress in Ireland for our project. The other thing which we've seen in Ireland this quarter is that EirGrid have published a detailed timeline towards the auction. Now we have both a written and but also very detailed timeline setting out what needs to happen before the CfD auction and also a timing for the CfD auction. And that is now set to be late April 2023. Again, very positive sign of the Irish market developing as we would like to see, and also that the government is committed to delivering on the targets and the framework we need in order to progress the Codling project. Very positive.
In addition to that, naturally, the development this quarter with the phase I project is very positive also for later projects and the phase II projects. Phase II describes the projects that come after the phase I projects. An auction is expected two years after the first CfD auction, and that is referred to as phase II. Naturally, with the development this quarter, it puts even more emphasis and positive emphasis on the fact that phase II will also deliver an auction in a timely manner. Positive developments for the Codling project this quarter. Next slide. Then moving to Scotland. Our team, the Mara Mhòr project and the team has been ramping up.
We now have an established team across the two companies, Vattenfall and Fred. Olsen Seawind working very closely together. In addition to that, we have also now started establishing a local office in Stirling for Fred. Olsen Seawind which also will serve as the project office for the Mara Mhòr project. In addition to that, we have kicked off environmental impact assessment work. We are looking at bird surveys and other works which are needed in order to prepare the consent. This all means that we will position the project for an early consent, and are working towards that, again, in order for us to participate in one of the earlier CfD rounds for the floating projects, where we expect that there will be a separate pot for floating projects.
On top of that, we've kicked off the technical work streams as well. That entails floral assessment, it entails supply chain engagement. Overall, the project have over the last half year come off to a very good start. We've now gone from, I would say, the establishment phase into the actual project phase. Next slide. To Norway, I think we had some positive news from the government in Norway in this quarter, where they basically announced a target of 30 GW towards 2040. Naturally, we are very positive around that target. Together with Ørsted and Hafslund, we have established a long-term partnership for the Norwegian market, which extends beyond the current lease rounds because we had a genuine belief in the Norwegian market.
Hence we are very happy to see that also the politicians see the same potential as we see in Norway. That is very positive. We are preparing a bid for both Utsira Nord and Sørlige Nordsjø II. We expect Utsira Nord to be a qualitative competition. It's floating wind. We would expect to see a very similar competition to what we've seen in Scotland. Naturally, we are drawing on our experiences from that competition. On Sørlige Nordsjø II, it's still in the making what the exact format will be. There we are more or less waiting for the government to say more about what the criteria will be and how the format will be.
Overall, positive with the new announcement, and we have a positive look towards the Norwegian market. Then looking a bit broader to new markets, because it's of course natural for us. We are established in three core markets in Ireland, Scotland and Norway, and it's natural for us to use that position and build on that position also in new markets. What I thought I would say a bit about is how we screen those markets and what we focus on and how we select the countries we look at. As you can see on the bottom of the slide, there are five different selection criteria. The three on the top are usual selection criteria for any offshore wind developer. Favorable wind conditions, grid close to population.
That's obviously something which most developers will look at. You also look at business environment, whether the economy is developed or not, and you look at is there a politically supportive regime, and so forth. What's important for me to highlight is that we also very much look at where do we have a distinct advantage, where do we have an existing position to build that on, or where do we have synergies with, for example, our existing partners or with our related companies. To give a few examples, we have over the last year worked with the Italian market.
Reason for selecting Italy is obviously that it's a very good offshore wind market, which fulfills the first three criteria, but it's also a market where we have significant synergies with Vattenfall Renewables, who is already present there on onshore and solar. It's been very natural for us to build on that knowledge around grid, around regulatory regime and so forth, and hence also look into offshore wind there. Another good example is the Celtic Sea leasing round coming up. Naturally with the Scotland success, it's natural for us to look at other waters around the U.K. and build on those experiences and that knowledge we've gained, both around supply chain, but naturally also around constraints and understanding of the regulatory regime. Celtic Sea is another area we are also looking at.
A third area we're looking at is Southeast Asia. As Anders already alluded to, we have there again utilized some of the synergies we have with Fred. Olsen Renewables, applying for a grant to Norad to investigate select countries in Southeast Asia. Overall, we are using our existing position in our core markets to build further on that naturally in a very selective manner, looking at in which countries do we have a distinct advantage, where do we have synergies we can build on so that we have an advantage when we set foot on the ground, so to speak. To sum up the quarter, first of all, major milestones achieved on Codling with the Marine Area Consent application submitted. We are ramping up the Scotland team and have kicked off the environmental impact assessment work.
Third, the Norwegian government has set an ambitious target which is a really good fit with our long-term commitment to that market. With those remarks, I will give the word back to you, Anette.
Thank you, Lars. Alexandra Koefoed is next, CEO of Fred. Olsen Windcarrier. Thank you.
Good morning, everybody. We start with a lovely picture of Bold Tern, the way she now looks. It ties well in with the Lars' presentation. Fred. Olsen Windcarrier also have a global presence. We are in Europe, the U.S., and Asia. We are actively working and tendering in all three areas. Q1 for Windcarrier, it's a quarter which is a mix of yard and working. I'm happy to say Blue Tern has been working 100% the full quarter. She has been working on foundation scope, both on the Kaskasi and NNG wind farm in Europe. That means our V2G install count doesn't grow as quickly as in other quarters, but still an active quarter.
Brave Tern started work in Asia as planned, and Bold Tern just at the end of the quarter arrived in Taiwan after her yard stay and is currently working. Backlog relatively stable after we actually talked about the very big contract at the last quarter presentation, but I'll briefly mention that again. The highlight of the quarter is the upgrade of Bold Tern, which is completed. Then we thought it was worth showing a sort of before and after shot because it is a very, very significant amount of changes we have done to the vessel. Length of the hull is the same. Length overall is definitely not the same when you're looking at crane and blade rack support. The width of the vessel, the beam has increased with 6 m.
It's not very easy to see on the picture, but if you're very observant, you see a shadow aft of the main crane pedestal, and that's where the sponson ends. We're happy to report the vessel has the same transit capabilities, i.e., the same speed as before the upgrade, even though we haven't done anything to the machinery. We've added some cabins. You can also see that in front of the lifeboat. We have changed the jacking system, so we've increased the preload capacity. That doesn't show on the picture, but it's very important. What's very visible on the picture is the new crane. It's an increased capacity actually from what we had before the upgrade of 1,000 tons.
It's the largest crane we can put on this vessel, and I think it's quite visible in the picture that it is a significantly larger crane. Which also sort of drives some other structures. For instance, the boom rest support and also the helideck, which is exchanged. I think I would just mention briefly what you see aft of the vessel is a blade rack support. That's where we'll carry the blades going forward. That is actually an important change because previously we used to have the blades just aft of accommodation, which is the lighter components, which meant we also had to ballast the vessel. By reconfiguring the vessel, we can actually get rid of 1,000 tons of ballast, which means we can carry 1,000 tons of cargo.
All in all, the project was completed at budget at EUR 61 million, and we have had some delays. It's not really linked to the yard stay. It's linked to the fact that the crane was fabricated in China. We had challenges with getting the crane out of China due to very strict COVID regulations. I think it was the third heavy lift that actually ended up picking it up. That sort of had an add-on effect on one of the crane vessels. Still, we finished it in Q2, as we have reported for some time. Now she is in Taiwan working, and that's been going relatively smoothly given that we have been then in yard for more than half a year.
I think it's also worth mentioning in terms of the backlog, we see a 40% increase of the rates on this vessel compared to our remaining fleet. The clients do appreciate the added capacity. To the results. It's a positive EBITDA. That's a change from Q1. It is lower than last year, but that is linked to utilization, which was 51%. That's mainly linked to Bold Tern, which has not worked in this quarter at all. For the next two quarters, we do expect all three vessels to work more or less 100%. That gives us a very strong outlook for the remainder of the year. In terms of backlog, we did formally sign a new contract this quarter.
We did talk about it in the last quarterly presentation, so it's the same contract, but it was signed this quarter, so that's why we mention it here. It's a very big contract, but it also has some subcontracting elements in it. In the quarter, we have also added some work in Taiwan for 2023. We've completed some outgoing projects, so the backlog all in all has been quite steady. We've sort of used some backlog, and we've added more or less the same amount. As Richard pointed out, we do have a strong backlog for the coming three and a half years. That concludes my presentation.
Thank you. Back to you, Richard.
Thank you, Anette. Moving on to Global Wind Service. Global Wind Service, like, we have done some product development of the slides for Global Wind Service. We use the same slides for a long time. Here you see some other slides on that, I think. At the heart of this slide, you see 2020-2023 strategy. We see a lot of interesting opportunities for Global Wind Service, and they really now developed a solid strategy towards 2023 of which market positions they should go after. For competitive reasons, I cannot go into that much detail on that, but I would like to say that the Global Wind Service have an excellent cooperation with all, like and the same with Windc arrier, excellent cooperation with its customers, in particular the turbine manufacturers.
We see a lot of synergies and work in that interface, both with the turbine manufacturers but also in cooperation with the FOWIC. The growth continues. As of now, Global Wind Service have around 1,600 dedicated employees working around the globe this summer. Major projects in the onshore in the U.S., major projects in Taiwan together with Windc arrier, and also very interestingly now, offshore wind starting up in France, so also mobilizing them in France. On the revenue side, we have seen U.S. becoming a very important market and been really driving revenue growth the last couple of years, also this year. We have a gap this year between finalizing some very large projects for Vestas, and a gap before they moved on to some even larger project schedules for Northland Power, later in the year.
We expect further growth from the turnover in 2021 of NOK 184 million. It positions us very well, fits into Lars' presentation and Alexandra's presentation, fits right into the same markets and geographies as the rest of the group of the companies. On the services today, and we're also looking at how we can expand the services. Of course, the installation is the big part where we do crane and installation and also do repowering when that is to happen. Last few years also moved heavily into pre-assembly, which has been an area of outsourcing from the OEMs, which have been an important business area. It's really the offshore which is the key part of the installation. Onshore is also very important, a strong position there.
In offshore, Global Wind Service is the undisputed number one in the world as we speak. On the service, more and more service work is also coming in the way for Global Wind Service as we see the OEMs really want to work with Global Wind Service in this area. Finally, blades we see, especially on the offshore side, significant technical challenges and deterioration of blades and continuous need for blade exchange, blade inspections and so on, and is a growing market where we are positioned. I think that was what I planned to say about Global Wind. On to Cruise. One more please. Yeah.
Already covered much of this, but to repeat, Borealis and Bolette, they operated in full in the second quarter and Balmoral came into the market early May and gradually came into more and more profitable cruising towards the end of the month. Still, the occupancy of 73% in a high season like the second quarter, I would say is on the low side. On the other hand, the net ticket income of under GBP 194 per diem is significantly higher than cruise lines had pre-COVID. There are good demands for cruises this summer. We also see strong bookings going forward, but there are uncertainties now for the winter. We see more last-minute cancellations. We also see more last-minute bookings.
We are concerned about the U.K. economy with the rising prices, inflation, and so on, what that will do with the purchasing power and the appetite for cruising. What we say here, we see strong bookings for the summer season, but we have more uncertainty around the winter season now for between 2022 and 2023. Finally, it was not helpful at all that we had to cancel attractive destinations as St. Petersburg and Odessa. The final remark on cruise with the bunker prices, it is quite challenging these days with bunker prices north of $100 per barrel, which is also transferring to the product markets for marine gas oil and heavy fuel bunkers. Carry on.
To end this presentation, and just want to reiterate strong improvements in the results, almost a doubling of the EBITDA, mainly driven by renewable energy. A lot of strong operational achievements, and also to end with a major strategic milestone for the group of companies, and in particular for Fred. Olsen Renewables. That ends my part. Anette, back to you.
Yes. We will now open up for questions.
Thank you. If you do wish to ask a question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw your question, you may do so by pressing zero two to cancel. There'll just be a brief pause while any questions are being registered. We have a question from the line of Anne Filbert from ENERGYWATCH . Please go ahead.
Hello, and good morning. I was wondering if you could tell me if there is any sort of activity for Universal Foundation when the liability case regarding Deutsche Bank is finished?
You want me to answer, Anette?
Yeah.
Well, I think, to answer your question, there is very limited activity in Universal Foundation. Next question, please.
The next question comes from the line of Jonas Fremming from SpareBank 1 Markets. Please go ahead.
Good morning. This is Jonas Fremming from SpareBank 1 Markets. I have a couple questions. I guess this one is to Alexandra. Can you give us an overview of the timing of the planned upgrades and renewals going forward? And could you also give us some kind of CapEx breakdown?
Could you repeat the first question, please?
An overview of the timing of the planned upgrades, and renewals for the vessels in Fred. Olsen Windcarrier.
Yes. Bold Tern, we just completed. Brave Tern, we do have a firm order on a crane that was placed in December that we are planning to install winter season 2024. For Blue Tern, we are looking at doing an upgrade after a project we have committed in 2024, so that will go into 2025. That is the sort of timelines of the upgrades. In terms of, Brave Tern will be basically a copy of what we have done to Bold Tern. That upgrade is most likely gonna happen in Europe, so that will probably have some effect on the CapEx. Blue Tern is she is a bigger vessel than the others, so we have done quite a bit of work to optimize the upgrade.
We do know at this stage in time that she will get a significantly larger crane than the two other vessels because she has the technical capacity.
Thank you. I want to congratulate you on the recent announcement of the establishment of the investment fund and what seems to be a good transaction. Can you elaborate on the expected timing for FIDs for the various projects in the pre-construction phase or the consented phase?
Yeah, that's a very good question. Maybe we could call on our colleague, Anders. As he is the one driving the FIDs.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay. Thank you. You see we have now three consented sites in the U.K., and we have two in Sweden. For Fäbodliden II in Sweden is very close to FID. For Björkhöjden, we could potentially do a FID, but we are re-consenting that site for 250 m to tip instead of 210 m, which provides significantly better wind conditions and yield. That's the reason why we wait for that. I'm not sure how precise I should be, but obviously all the consented sites are sites we work hard to progress towards FID.
For the remaining pipeline, we typically do FID between six months and two years after we get the consent, would be my best guiding on that.
Yeah.
I think also, Anders, you said in your presentation a little bit about where we were on the three Scottish consented projects that we had started.
Yeah.
The scoping and so on.
Yeah. The Scottish project, we got the consents about a year ago. We are working towards an FID on those three sites.
Thank you. That's all from me.
As there are no further questions, I'll hand it back to the speakers.
Okay. Thank you very much, everybody. It only reminds me to wish you all a very good summer. Thank you.