The 288MW Storheia windfarm is the biggest of the six windfarms in the Fosen wind project. Credit: Statkraft / Fosen Wind.
Fosen will become the biggest onshore wind park in Europe upon completion. Credit: Ole Martin Wold.
Storheia windfarm will produce more than one billion kWh of electricity. Credit: Line Partner / Comrod.

Storheia is a 288MW wind farm being developed in the Bjugn and Åfjord municipalities of the Sør-Trøndelag county in central Norway.

The project is part of the bigger 1,000MW Fosen wind project, which includes the construction of six wind farms and will become the biggest onshore wind farm in Europe upon completion in 2020. Storheia is the biggest wind farm under the Fosen project.

Construction of the Storheia wind farm began in August 2016 and is expected to be completed by 2019. It is expected to generate more than one billion kWh of electricity, which will be sufficient for approximately 50,000 Norwegian homes.

Fosen Wind DA, a joint venture (JV) between Statkraft (52.1%), TrønderEnergi (7.9%) and Nordic Wind Power (40.0%), owns the Fosen Wind project, while Statkraft is the project developer.

Storheia wind farm make-up

The Storheia wind farm will consist of 80 Vestas V117 turbines, with an installed capacity of 3.6MW each. The turbines will be equipped with a transformer for increasing the machine voltage of 660V to 33kV, along with switching equipment.

Expected to be installed during the second quarter of 2019, each turbine will have a hub height of 87m and rotor diameter of 117m.

The transformer station and service building at Storheia will be located in the eastern part of the licensing area. They will include appliance systems, switch systems and other technical installations.

The wind turbines will be connected through 33kV internal cables.

Construction of the Norwegian onshore wind farm

Major infrastructure works include the construction of access roads, turbine foundations and seating locations for assembly lines, internal roads, a transformer station building and three transformer cells, and one service building. Installation of optical fibre cables and 36kV high-voltage (HV) cables will also be undertaken.

Construction of the 60km-long internal road network at Storheia began in April 2017. The roads will have a width of 5m and total traverse width of approximately 10m.

Power transmission at Storheia wind farm

The power generated by the Storheia wind farm will be connected to the new 420kV power line being constructed from Namsos to Trollheim, by way of Fosen, which includes the Namsos-Storheia and Storheia-Trollheim sections.

The new line is being constructed to transmit the power generated by the Fosen wind park to the national grid.

Contractors involved in the Norway wind farm

Vestas Wind Systems is supplying the wind turbines for the Storheia wind farm as part of the 278 wind turbine supply contract for the Fosen Wind Park.

Kolektor Etra is the supplier of the transformers, while Statnett was engaged for the construction of the new 420kV power line.

The consortium of ABB and Bravida Norway is supplying the 132kV air-insulated outdoor switchgear and 33kV air-insulated indoor switchgear, along with the corresponding protection and control for the entire Fosen project. ABB is responsible for the delivery, design and construction, while Bravida is responsible for the installation.

Veidekke Entreprenør was awarded a $400m contract for infrastructure works at the Storheia wind farm in February 2017, while Johs J Syltern was engaged for the construction of the access roads.

“It is expected to generate more than one billion kWh of electricity, which will be sufficient for approximately 50,000 Norwegian homes.”

Veidekke engaged Ramboll to conduct detailed power, road and geotechnical engineering, as well as landscaping and environmental studies.

Stjern Entreprenør was awarded the contract for the construction of a quay at Monstad for the Storheia wind project, while the mains and fibre works contract was awarded to Linjepartner in January 2017.

Details of the Fosen Wind Project

With an estimated investment of €1.1bn ($1.26bn), the six wind farms comprising the Fosen project are expected to produce 3.4TWh of renewable energy a year.

The 255MW Roan and 288MW Storheia wind farms began construction in April 2016 and are expected to be completed by 2019, while the remaining four wind farms, Harbaksfjell (108MW), Kvenndalsfjellet (100.8MW), Geitfjellet (154.8MW) and Hitra (93.6MW), are expected to be developed from 2018 to 2020.

The project will comprise a total of 248 Vestas V117-3.45MW and 30 V112-3.45MW wind turbines.