Equinor Plans to Build Floating Wind Farm to Power Oil Platforms
Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor announced Friday that it has made a final investment decision on a floating wind farm to power two North Sea offshore platforms. The project will make the Snorre and Gullfaks installations the first oil production platforms (and among the only facilities of any kind) ever powered by a floating wind farm.
The project consists of 11 eight-megawatt wind turbines based on the Hywind floating tower system developed by Equinor. The farm's capacity will be enough to meet about 35 percent of the annual power demand for the Snorre A, Snorre B and Gullfaks A, B and C platforms.
The project is made possible by Equinor, its private-sector partners in the Snorre and Gullfaks developments, and a generous contribution from the Norwegian government. The total cost will be about $550 million, of which $250 million will be borne by Norwegian authorities through Norway's Enova environmental initiative. (Equinor is itself 67 percent state-owned.)
The development site for the new windfarm is about 75 nm off the coast in about 1,000 feet of water, which is far too deep for conventional jackets or pilings. Floating wind technology allows the possibility of bringing offshore wind to new deepwater sites with excellent energy potential.
“We have been systematically maturing technologies for floating offshore wind for almost 20 years. The decision by the Snorre and Gullfaks partners helps bring this technology an important step forward," said Eldar Sætre, CEO of Equinor. "About 80 percent of the global resource potential for offshore wind is in deep waters, and floating offshore wind may play an important part in the energy transition towards more sustainable global energy supply."