Norwegian company Aker Offshore Wind has received funding from Enova for a pre-project that aims to reduce costs and increase maturity in important technical segments of offshore floating wind. Enova is Norway’s innovation fund for environmentally friendly technologies.
The objective of the project is to better understand how technology solutions can enable the use and development of a Norwegian supply chain and drive down costs over time.
Geir Olav Berg, Chief Technology Officer of Aker Offshore Wind said: "Today's solutions are mature enough to move from the pilot phase to the development of industrial-scale projects. At the same time, the market for floating offshore wind is in an early phase and we continue to innovate and explore new solutions to support the step up to mass production. In this project, we will challenge the full technical system and explore how solutions can contribute to future Norwegian competitiveness."
The study explores how the supplier industry can develop and support the realization of offshore wind in segments such as fabrication, execution models, and offshore technologies.
The study is funded by Aker Offshore Wind, which recently spun off from Aker Solutions, and a grant of NOK 10 million (around $1 million) from Enova, for the current project phase.
"Aker Offshore Wind aims to be a driving force in the industrialization of floating offshore wind in Norway and internationally,” says Astrid Skarheim Onsum, Chief Executive Officer of Aker Offshore Wind. “We appreciate the support of Enova and look forward to working closely with the Norwegian supplier industry as our home market matures.”
To remind, just last week, Aker Offshore Wind signed an agreement with the Norwegian oil firm Aker BP to speed up the process of decarbonizing oil and gas assets and realizing offshore wind in Norway at large scale.
The two companies plan to collaborate on concepts for efficient development of large offshore wind farms to enable effective offtake to oil and gas producing assets on the NCS. Aker Offshore Wind is taking a role to develop and operate the wind farms. Aker BP will contribute with industry and technology competence and be a potential customer of electricity from offshore wind along with other operators.