Norwegian government agency Enova has awarded Nkr3.94bn ($427.54m) to two companies to develop floating offshore wind demonstration projects off the country’s south-west coast.
Fortius Offshore Wind will receive NKR2bn and Fram Wind Solutions Nkr1.94bn to construct a total of four floating turbines at METCentre’s test site off Karmøy in Rogaland over the next five years. Funding is conditional on the projects being implemented.
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Each turbine will have a capacity of 18.5MW, giving the four installations a combined output equivalent to roughly 20 average onshore wind turbines. Together, they are expected to generate around 300 million kWh annually, sufficient to supply approximately 15,000 households.
The projects are designed to trial and demonstrate emerging technologies, including floating foundations for large-scale turbines, mooring systems, and methods for constructing and operating the installations. These areas are considered critical to driving down costs and making floating offshore wind commercially viable.
Enova CEO Evy Glørstad said: “If they succeed in making offshore wind technology profitable enough, it will be a major step towards faster, large-scale deployment of renewable power. Both Norwegian industry and the transport sector need this to reduce their climate emissions.”
The two projects were chosen through a competitive selection process that assessed energy output per krone of funding, potential for wider technology adoption, carbon footprint, biodiversity impact and prospects for achieving lower costs in future.
Enova offshore wind head Oskar Gärdeman said: “Norway has particularly good prerequisites for developing floating offshore wind because we have a strong maritime industry and vast ocean areas with strong winds.”
An Enova report prepared for the Ministry of Energy earlier this year estimated that a successful global rollout of floating offshore wind could bring generation costs down to as low as Nkr1 per kWh.
Considerable international investment is already under way, particularly across Europe and Asia.
France this summer allocated €63bn, equivalent to Nkr655bn, to floating and fixed-bottom offshore wind development over 25 years, while the European Commission has identified floating offshore wind as a key component of the continent’s energy mix through to 2050.
