Steel shortages and bottlenecks in the supply chain mean that the completion of Hywind Tampen – “the largest floating wind farm in the world” – will be postponed until next year. Metals and minerals have been called “Putin’s trump card” in the geopolitical game between the West and Russia, and parts of the global steel market have collapsed as a result of the Ukraine war. According to the plan, Hywind Tampen was to supply the Gullfaks and Snorre fields in the North Sea with electricity from this autumn. Now, instead, electricity production has been reduced after “quality deviations in steel plates in four tower sections” were found. This is reported by Equinor. – Longer implementation time will have consequences for the costs, says Eskil Eriksen in Equinor to the newspaper Nordhordland. He points out that the weather conditions in autumn and winter do not make it advisable to transport the last turbines from the industrial quay out into the North Sea until spring. In practice, this means that four out of eleven wind turbines must spend the winter in Sløvåg in Gulen (video below). Tampen Hywind turbines are now installed in Sløvåg in Gulen. Photo: Arne Stubhaug, news Hywind Tampen Partners: Equinor, Petoro, OMV, Vår Energi, Wintershall Dea and INPEX Idemitsu Norge AS. Total system capacity of 88 MW. The turbines have been upgraded from 8 to 8.6 MW, which makes the wind farm more robust. About 140 km off the Norwegian coast. Water depth between 260 and 300 metres. The turbines are mounted on a floating concrete structure with a common anchoring system. The plan is to start producing electricity in the third quarter of 2022. Source: Equinor – Offshore wind venture weakened by lack of labor Project director for Hywind Tampen, Olav-Bernt Haga, says that the ambition is still to deliver electricity during the year – “first to Gullfaks, then to the Snorri field”. In May, the Støre government announced that they want 1,500 wind turbines in Norwegian waters by 2040, and that offshore wind must produce as much power as Norwegian water turbines. But, as the problem with the steel plates demonstrates, political will is only one of several “effort factors” that control the speed of the Norwegian offshore wind investment. In a written question to the energy minister, Rasmus Hansson (MDG) asks how the European desire for Norwegian gas harmonizes with the offshore wind investment. – We fear that a lack of labor at Norwegian shipyards will lead to a weaker investment in offshore wind, says Hansson to news. Workers at Norwegian shipyards are vacationing in pools today to keep gas production up. In June, Equinor announced that they are exploring the possibility of a floating offshore wind farm in the Troll area, about 65 kilometers west of Bergen. The goal is for “Trollvind” to supply extra power to the Bergen region. Photo: Equinor Internal memo: “Great risk of Norway falling behind” Questions about the Norwegian offshore wind investment have also been raised “in-house”. In June, DN wrote about an internal Foreign Ministry memo warning that there is “a big risk that Norway will fall behind in offshore wind”. The background was an offshore wind summit with government leaders from Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark to which Norway was not invited. The meeting culminated in the Esbjerg Declaration, which states that the North Sea will become “Europe’s green power plant”. Olaf Scholz (Germany), Alexander De Croo (Belgium), Mette Frederiksen (Denmark) and Mark Rutte (Netherlands) during the summit on offshore wind. Norway was not invited. Photo: ANP / SipaUSA “When there is talk of the North Sea as Europe’s green power plant without Norway’s involvement, it means that Denmark is about to take a leadership position that may be difficult to regain,” warns the Foreign Ministry memo. The Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, presented in May a plan to build two artificial “energy islands” in the North Sea. The Financial Times calls the project “the world’s most ambitious offshore wind project”. Oil and Energy Minister Terje Lien Aasland (Ap) has previously stated that the government “must come back to” if Norway is to join the Esbjerg Declaration.
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The war in Ukraine slows down Norwegian offshore wind investment – news Vestland
