Equinor and its partners Petoro, TotalEnergies, Shell and ConocoPhillips in the Troll and Oseberg fields, have initiated a study and are looking into possible options for building a floating offshore wind farm in the Troll area some 65 kilometres west of Bergen, Norway, according to the company's release.
With an installed capacity of about ~1 GW and an annual production of ~4.3 TWh, with a startup in 2027, Trollvind could provide much of the electricity needed to run the offshore fields Troll and Oseberg through an onshore connection point. The Bergen area already serves several of these installations with power – and needs more input to its electricity grid. The plan is that the partnership will buy as much energy as the wind farm can produce at a price that can make the project possible.
Power from Trollvind could make a solid contribution towards electrification of oil and gas installations, accelerate offshore wind development in Norway, and deliver extra power to the Bergen region.
In 2020, the Norwegian parliament (Stortinget) decided to intensify emission reductions requirements from the Norwegian continental shelf from 40 to 50 per cent by 2030. To achieve this target, large-scale industrial single-point emission sources, such as offshore oil and gas installations, must reduce their emissions. Electrification of installations with long remaining lifetimes will be a key initiative to succeed with this transition.
The partners are evaluating commercial arrangements where the Trollvind development are selling power to the Troll and Oseberg installations and the Kollsnes plant. Trollvind will not require other forms of financial support. Estimates indicate that Trollvind can deliver power for less than NOK 1/kWh. Such an agreement would ensure greater long-term access to power at a stable price in an area where the power situation is strained. At the same time secure a sufficient income level for the wind farm to trigger the investment.
Trollvind is now being further matured by the Troll and Oseberg partners initiating feasibility studies aimed at an investment decision during 2023.