Equinor, the Norwegian oil and gas company, announced that it made a final investment on the first ever floating wind farm to power two North Sea offshore platforms, a project between Equinor, the Snorre and Gullfaks, which will begin operations in late 2022.
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.
Specifically, the wind farm will consist of 11 wind turbines based on the Hywind technology developed by Equinor. The wind farm will be able to achieve a 35% of the annual power demand of the five Snorre A and B, Gullfaks A, B and C platforms.
The Norwegian Government will also contribute to the project, which will cost about $550 million, of which $250 million will be borne by Norwegian authorities through Norway’s Enova environmental initiative.
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The wind farm will help cut CO2 emissions by more than 200,000 tonnes annually, which equals to 100,000 annual emissions by passenger cars, by reducing the use of gas turbines on the fields.
The to-be-developed project will be located 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.
Eldar Sætre, CEO of Equinor commented that
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.
Equinor is also amongst the founding members of the Offshore Wind California coalition (OWC), which aims towards reaching a minimum of 10GW of offshore wind by 2040, to provide jobs, generate growth and meet the state’s goal to 100% renewable power by 2045.
