Aker Solutions to Set Up Standalone Offshore Wind Company

Aker Solutions will separate its offshore wind business in a new company – Aker Offshore Wind – saying the standalone entity will have financial flexibility to raise required capital for large, capital-intensive projects.

The company, which is merging with Kvaerner and is also spinning off its carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) business, will be an alliance partner and preferred supplier to both the new offshore wind and CCUS companies.

“The combined company will be a dedicated execution partner for delivery of complete projects for new energy production facilities, for example oil and gas production platforms or subsea systems, or offshore wind power installations”, said Kjetel Digre, who will join Aker Solutions as CEO on 1 August.

Aker Solutions will carry out a private placement for Aker Offshore Wind to secure funding for the next phase of its offshore wind development portfolio, and will then apply for its shares to be admitted to trading on Merkur Market, a multilateral trading facility operated by the Oslo Stock Exchange.

The company will then propose to distribute its shares in Aker Offshore Wind to Aker Solutions’ shareholders.

The shares of Aker Offshore Wind are expected to start trading on Merkur Market in August.

Aker Solutions has scheduled an extraordinary general meeting for 14 August to approve the proposed distribution of Aker Solutions’ shares in the offshore wind company, which will be headed by Astrid Skarheim Onsum as its CEO.

“Aker Solutions has taken an early position in the emerging market for offshore floating wind, and currently holds ownership stakes in ongoing development prospects in the US and South Korea, while evaluating other markets such as Norway and the UK”, the company said in a press release from 17 July.

In Norway, Aker BP is planning to explore the opportunity of using offshore wind energy at new oil & gas development areas. The company recently entered into an agreement in principle with Equinor on commercial terms for the coordinated development of the licenses Krafla, Fulla, and North of Alvheim (NOAKA) on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

In the U.S., Aker Solutions is part of the consortium behind the DeepFarm project, which focuses on developing mooring solutions for deepwater floating offshore wind, and is also in a consortium developing a holistic digital monitoring solution for floating wind infrastructure.

Last year, together with EDP Renewables, Aker Solutions invested in the development company Korea Floating Wind Power (KFWind) that plans to develop a 500 MW floating wind farm off the coast of Ulsan Metropolitan City in South Korea.