Three companies are due to trial floating offshore wind prototype platforms supporting 15MW-plus turbines at Norway’s Marine Energy Test Centre (METCentre) in efforts to reduce the costs of the nascent technology.
The METCentre is located in the deep waters off Norway’s west coast and is the only facility in the world capable of testing full-sized floating offshore wind platforms at 15MW+ scale, its owners claimed.
Floating offshore wind is considered essential for Norway's energy transition due largely to the country's deep coastal waters.
The three firms have signed agreements to install and test their floating wind platform designs. However, the three companies have not been named publicly as they are now competing for the additional funding for floating wind technologies from Norway’s state-owned renewables and climate-focused innovation body, Enova.
The world’s first floating offshore wind turbine – Norwegian oil firm Equinor’s Hywind design – was installed at the METCentre in 2019.
The site now also hosts the TetraSpar floater prototype, a project developed by Danish floating wind specialist Stiesdhal and backed by German utility RWE and oil supermajor Shell, in 2021.
The METCentre is located close to the Utsira Nord site in the Norwegian North Sea, which is due to host Norway’s first commercial-scale floating offshore wind farm.
A two-sided contract for difference tender for rights to build floating offshore wind at Utsira Nord is now planned for 2025 after it faced delays due to concerns over EU state aid rules.
Last month. the Norwegian government announced it would support a single 500MW project at the site with up to NOK 35 billion (€3 billion), despite previously suggesting two projects would be supported.
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