LONDON (Bloomberg) - Equinor ASA made a final decision to invest in floating wind turbines to power offshore oil platforms off Norway after the government agreed to subsidize a large part of the cost.
Hywind Tampen will cost a total of almost 5 billion kroner ($550 million), it said in a statement on Friday. That’s in line with the state-controlled company’s earlier estimate.
The project to set up 11 turbines in the North Sea with a total capacity of 88 megawatts to supply electricity to platforms on two oil fields will be the first of its kind and the biggest floating windpower project in the world. The technology isn’t profitable yet without subsidies and Hywind Tampen is only going ahead after the government agreed in August to contribute as much as 2.3 billion kroner in support, in addition to capital made available by an industry fund.
Equinor said earlier that the subsidy wouldn’t exceed 50% of the total cost. The turbines are scheduled to start producing electricity at the end of 2022.