Norwegian energy major Equinor has decided to postpone further development of the Trollvind offshore wind initiative indefinitely.
Equinor said that the decision was based on several challenges facing the project, including technology availability, rising cost, and a strained timetable to deliver on the original concept. The company added that it informed the relevant authorities of the decision.
The Norwegian company has previously announced reduced activity in the project due to technical, regulatory, and commercial challenges to the project.
“We appreciate all the positive response towards Trollvind from politicians, suppliers, and authorities. Trollvind was a bold industrial plan to solve pressing issues concerning the electrification of oil and gas installations, bringing much-needed power to the Bergen area while accelerating floating offshore wind power in Norway. Unfortunately, we no longer see a way forward to deliver on our original concept of having an operational wind farm well before 2030,” says Siri Espedal Kindem, Equinor’s vice president of renewables in Norway.
Equinor noted that rising costs have challenged the original concept that Trollvind would not require any financial support and that it is no longer a commercially sustainable project.
“Changes in the technical solutions due to the preferred technology not being available have made the concept less viable. Finally, time was always going to be a challenge with the proposed timeline, and despite all the big effort it has not been possible to mature Trollvind to the level needed to go forward at this time,” Equinor explained.
Regardless of this decision, Equinor is still looking forward. The company stated that its intention is still to lead in building an offshore wind industry in Norway.
“The knowledge and learning from working on Trollvind will be applied to other projects as Equinor remain committed to developing floating offshore wind power at Utsira Nord and outside Norway,” the company concluded.
As for the Trollvind concept, Equinor and its partners in the Troll and Oseberg fields – Petoro, TotalEnergies, Shell, and ConocoPhillips – initiated a study in June 2022 to see the options for building a floating offshore wind farm in the Troll area which would power the two fields.
The installed capacity was supposed to be around 1 GW with an annual production of 4.3 TWh and a startup in 2027. Trollvind should have been able to provide much of the electricity needed to run the offshore fields Troll and Oseberg through an onshore connection point. When the project was announced, Trollvind was supposed to deliver power for less than 9 cents per kWh.
