Odfjell Oceanwind has been awarded a NOK10m ($1.13m) pre-project grant from Norway’s Enova for maturing its first commercial contracts for mobile offshore wind units (MOWUs) and WindGrid for electrification of oil and gas installations on the Norwegian continental shelf.
The grant will fund part of the engineering and planning activities in the second half of 2021, providing a sound foundation for an investment decision. The main project aims at connecting the first MOWUs to oil and gas installations in 2024.
The MOWUs are based on Siemens Gamesa’s 11MW offshore wind turbine generator and Odfjell Oceanwind’s WindGrid hybrid system for integrating the MOWUs into the host platforms power system. The WindGrid will allow gas turbines on the host platform to be stopped in periods of wind power production, thus enabling a 60-70% reduction in CO2 emissions on the oil and gas platform in the North Sea, the company explained.
“This award marks another milestone on our roadmap towards commercial floating wind power, and will be an important enabler for us and our customers to progress the first MOWU contracts for oil and gas installations on the Norwegian Continental Shelf,” said Per Lund, CEO of Odfjell Oceanwind.
