Equinor eyes floating offshore wind cost cuts with new partnership
Norwegian player joins forces with Abu Dhabi’s Masdar and UK renewables technology specialist Ore Catapult
Norwegian giant Equinor has joined forces with Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company Masdar and UK's Offshore Renewable Energy (Ore) Catapult to research ways of cutting back on the cost of developing floating offshore wind projects.
A floating offshore wind pioneer, Equinor switched the lights on two years ago at its Hywind Scotland pilot, located project 25 kilometres east of Peterhead in Scotland, in the UK North Sea.
The world’s first floating wind farm saw five floating wind turbines, with a total installed capacity of 30MW installed in water depth ranges between 95 metres and 120 metres.
By enabling access to this information, the partners aim to better engage industry, academia and the offshore wind supply chain in the UK and internationally, to foster collaboration and drive innovation in floating offshore wind.
“The POD service is designed to offer comprehensive data sets from offshore wind demonstrator sites across the UK to improve our understanding of how offshore wind farms operate in real-world conditions and support innovative research, projects and product development,” Equinor said.
The data shared will include environmental data, motions of the floating wind turbine and loads in the mooring system.
The shared long-term goal is to reduce the cost of floating offshore wind, making the technology a cost competitive industrial solution, according to the company.
“Floating offshore wind is a cornerstone in our renewable strategy to become an offshore wind major and we believe this technology will play a key role in delivering the UK’s Sector Deal and decarbonisation goals,” head of floating wind development at Equinor, Sebastian Bringsvaerd said.
The Nkr5 billion ($550 million) project will see the first oil and gas platforms to be powered by floating wind turbines, paving the way for further deep-water use of the pioneering clean energy technology developed by Equinor at Hywind Scotland.
Chris Hill, Ore Catapult’s operational performance director, added: “The inclusion of free to use operational data from Hywind Scotland will be a great addition to our POD service, and greatly enhance our offering to our users.
“Big data is transforming our understanding of how wind farms work, and therefore our approach to building, operating and maintaining them.