Norway could have 3GW of offshore wind – much of it floating – in operation by 2030 under a new step-wise strategy devised by power technology giant ABB and environmental lobby group Zero.

The proposed programme aims to reduce emissions off the Nordic country by at least one million tonnes of CO2 a year, while giving impetus in the transition away from offshore oil & gas production in the one of world’s largest petroleum provinces.

The plan targets a first gigawatt of floating wind arrays powering late-life output from many of the ageing offshore fields on the Norwegian continental shelf, followed by a second gigawatt built “in surrounding waters” and tied-in to electrical infrastructure installed during phase one. A third gigawatt of offshore wind, both bottom-fixed and floating, could be added as power exported direct to the onshore grid, driven by the improved economics of a by-then-mature regional industry.

“In Norway we have been talking about offshore wind for a very long time, but there have been no policy measures on the table in the Storting [parliament] that were likely to really happen,” said Einar Wilhelmsen, head of energy systems at Zero.

“We have been trying to get the offshore oil & gas industry to reduce their emissions for many years too, using power from shore. And now that floating wind is sufficiently mature [as a technology] we think it should be looked at to do the same.

“When you consider the cost of burning gas to power an offshore platform – much more expensive than power on mainland Norway – it makes much more sense to power a platform from offshore rather than from the grid on land,” added Wilhelmsen.

“Subsidising offshore wind and bringing it to Norway makes very little sense given the price of onshore wind now and our existing hydropower supply. To commercialise floating offshore wind, you need scale – and Norway has this, we think around 1GW to start – from our offshore oil & gas platforms, roughly one-third of the power demand.”

The second 1GW tranche, he adds, would capitalise on the economics of scale that comes with “connecting things together, just as we do on land” through a network of offshore substations and energy island hubs, as well as a number of offshore oil complexes that are already powered from onshore rather than by gas-fired generators on the platforms.

By ABB/Zero’s calculations, a third 1GW of offshore wind – “possibly for export” – would become commercially viable as costs were squeezed out of the sector as it matured industrially, Wilhelmsen said.

Along with supporting the Norwegian energy transition offshore, development of the offshore wind sector, according to the ABB/Zero study, could grow into an export market for oil & gas contractors and start-ups worth NKr50bn ($5.8bn) a year by the end of the next decade.

“From Zero’s perspective [as an environmental and climate change lobbyist] it might seem a little strange to be helping the oil industry produce more oil, but for us the important thing here is that we both greatly reduce emissions [from offshore oil platforms] and at the same time speed up development of [floating wind] technology, which we believe can have a big impact on the global energy system,” said Wilhelmsen.

“We need to creating changes [in the energy system] as fast as possible and as smart as possible and for floating wind, scale will be key – our plan we think contributes to a way forward.”

Despite having a world-class wind resource blowing off its shores, Norway has been slow to develop its offshore wind sector – chiefly because it was uncompetitive with the country’s vast, low-cost hydropower production. To date, the only installed capacity in its waters is the 2.3MW Hywind floating wind turbine prototype switched on by Equinor (then Statoil) in 2009.

However, current plans off Norway now include Canadian infrastructure developer Enbridge’s bottom-fixed 350MW Havsul development, which is close to a final investment decision; the first Stiesdal TetraSpar floating turbine, to be installed next year with developers Shell and Innogy; and Equinor’s Tampen Hywind project, an 88MW array of floating Hwyind units to be wired into the Gullfaks and Snorre oil & gas complex.

And, although there has been no formal policy shift by the Norwegian government, this summer the country’s ministry of petroleum & energy announced plans to open two new areas to offshore wind for projects linked to oil & gas installations.

Wind

Norway ‘could have 3GW’ of offshore wind by 2030: ABB/Zero