Offshore staff
KOKSTAD, Norway – Enova has awarded Odfjell Oceanwind a NOK10-million ($1.1-million) pre-project grant to support development of mobile offshore wind units (MOWUs) and WindGrid for electrification of oil and gas installations.
The grant will fund part of the engineering and planning activities for the second half of the year.
The MOWUs are based on Siemens Gamesa’s 11-MW offshore wind turbine generator and Odfjell Oceanwind’s WindGrid hybrid system for integrating the units into the host platform’s power system. The WindGrid will allow gas turbines on the host platform to be stopped in periods with wind power production, thus enabling 60-70% reduction of CO2 emissions on the oil and gas platform in the North Sea, the company claimed.
It aims to connect the first MOWUs to oil and gas installations on the Norwegian continental shelf in 2024.
Per Lund, CEO of Odfjell Oceanwind, said: “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.
“Our customers have high ambitions for reducing carbon footprint from their activities and our solutions offer an attractive alternative to expensive and controversial electrification by use of shore power cables.”
08/20/2021
