Norway’s Equinor is postponing further development of a floating offshore wind farm that was intended to power the Troll and Oseberg fields in the Norwegian North Sea citing several challenges facing the project.
A potential 1 GW project some 65 km west of Bergen called Trollvind was aimed for an investment decision this year, with a startup in 2027. However, technology availability, rising costs and a strained timetable to deliver on the original concept led to the decision to put the initiative on hold indefinitely.
“Trollvind was a bold industrial plan to solve pressing issues concerning electrification of oil and gas installations, bringing much needed power to the Bergen-area, while accelerating floating offshore wind power in Norway. Unfortunately, we no longer see a way forward to deliver on our original concept of having an operational wind farm well before 2030,” said Siri Espedal Kindem, vice president of renewables in Norway.
Equinor added that experience and lessons learned from Trollvind will be applied to other floating offshore wind projects such as the one at Utsira Nord and outside Norway.
