Flytende offshore vindkraft på Utsira Nord

Abstract

The wind power potential in deep water is huge and estimations made by The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) suggests that floating wind power in the North Sea alone can meet the power demand in Europe four times over. Norway adopted the Offshore Energy Act in July 1, 2010 and based on this NVE was given the responsibility to assess the potential for offshore wind power along the Norwegian coast. The study areas were first revealed by the report "Offshore wind - proposed study areas" and later underwent a comprehensive assessment in the follow-up report "Offshore wind - strategic impact assessment”. Based on this work five study areas were recommended for opening, where Utsira Nord is the only area that uses a floating structure. Through the use of the energy modeling software Retscreen 4, a feasibility study has been conducted based on forecasted costs and prices for Utsira Nord in the year 2020 and 2030. It is clear from the results that a wind farm using floating structure will not be technically and economically feasible with today's forecasted price and cost scenario for neither 2020 nor 2030. At its current state, the technology is too immature and lacks suppliers. Granting floating foundations are commercialized and available by the year 2020, the costs remain too high to make a floating wind park economically profitable. All model simulations therefore ends up with negative net present values. It will be necessary with cost reductions, and/or an increase in power prices, before a floating wind power project becomes economically competitive at Utsira Nord.