A floating offshore wind farm planned in Arctic waters on Friday received 2 billion Norwegian crowns ($193 million) in state funding, with Norway viewing the still costly technology as a key contributor for industry development and emission cuts.
The GoliatVind project in the Barents Sea, consisting of five 15 megawatts turbines and seeking to supply power to the Arctic town of Hammerfest, beat out six other applicants in a tender by government agency Enova.
Norway hopes that floating offshore wind will provide an industrial future for its offshore supply industry as well as a means of cutting emissions from oil and gas production by replacing gas turbines as a source of power supply.
"The government wants to make arrangements for floating offshore wind to become a new leg for the Norwegian supplier industry to stand on," Energy Minister Terje Aasland said in a statement.
Floating wind such as GoliatVind could help to electrify offshore oil and gas installations while also supplying power to land, Aasland added.
GoliatVind is owned by shipping firm Odfjell Oceanwind, renewables developer Source Galileo and Japanese utility Kansai Electric Power Company.
It will connect to an existing power cable supplying power from shore to the Goliat oil platform, operated by Vaar Energi, a subsidiary of Italy's ENI.
The oil platform consumes around 50-55 MW of electricity, which means that on full wind days, the planned turbines could send up to 25 MW to shore, Gunnar Birkeland, the head of Source Gallileo Norge, told Reuters.
Birkeland would not provide an overall cost estimate but said the awarded funding was "significant" for the project.
Operation is planned for 2028, within a five-year deadline for completion set by the Enova award.
Another tender round for small-scale floating wind is already planned for later this year, Enova said.
Last year, Equinor inaugurated the Hywind Tampen floating wind farm in the North Sea, which powers a number of oil and gas platforms.
($1 = 10.3621 Norwegian crowns)
(Reuters - Reporting by Nora Buli, editing by Terje Solsvik)