Norwegian Floating Wind Consortium Teams Up with Smulders & Eiffage for Serial Production of Foundations

August 22, 2023, by Adrijana Buljan

Siravind, a consortium established by RES and Zephyr with an aim to build a floating wind farm in Norway, has already partnered with several companies for the project, including Smulders and Eiffage Métal for the serial production of floating wind foundations.

In June, RES announced the consortium’s plans to bid for one of the three sites in the Utsira Nord offshore wind tender process, saying the area under consideration would utilise floating wind technology and deliver approximately 500 MW.

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Business development

“With Utsira Nord, Siravind aims to develop a new profitable offshore industry, and by 2040, Siravind has set a goal to establish 6 GW of floating offshore wind”, the consortium states on its website.

At the beginning of July, RES’s consortium partner Zephyr said Siravind’s aim was to use the development of Utsira Nord to build up an efficient and profitable floating wind industry through serial production of the floating foundations.

The consortium plans on using the MOLO floating wind platform developed by the Norwegian company Clovers, for which it says is particularly suitable for fast and efficient production and assembly.

“MOLO® is designed with a unique structure that facilitates mass production through modular assembly and structural elements suitable for automated serial production. It can accommodate a wide range of Wind Turbine Generators (WTGs) and has been meticulously engineered to minimize the LCOE”, Clovers says on its website.

For the serial production of foundations, Siravind has partnered with French Eiffage Métal and Belgian company Smulders, part of the Eiffage Group. In the press release from last month, Zephyr pointed out that the two companies have extensive experience with large steel structures, from work on the Eiffel Tower in Paris to being involved in the construction of half of all offshore wind foundations in the North Sea.

For the assembly, Siravind has chosen the shipyard of the Wergeland Group in Gulen municipality, one of the few places along the coast that are suitable for serial production of such large structures, according to Zephyr.

In a video post that Siravind shared via social media on 22 August, introducing the floating wind project and highlighting its collaboration with Eiffage Métal and Smulders, the consortium noted that more about the concept and its partners would be presented throughout this autumn.

As for the offshore wind tender(s) in Norway, as reported recently, the Norwegian government has pushed back the application deadline from 1 September to 1 November as it is waiting for the approval of the state aid scheme from the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA).

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Authorities

In its first offshore wind auction, Norway is offering a combined capacity of 3 GW across two areas, 1.5 GW at Southern North Sea II (Sørlige Nordsjø II) and 1.5 GW at Utsira Nord, the latter being deemed most suitable for floating wind technology.

The 1.5 GW of (floating) offshore wind capacity at Utsira Nord will be awarded to three bidders through a competition based on qualitative criteria which will, among other things, facilitate innovation and technology development in floating wind. The minimum capacity of individual bids for Utsira Nord must be 460 MW, and the maximum capacity 500 MW.

Since the Norwegian government needs to obtain ESA’s approval and has moved the application deadline to 1 November, the allocation of the first offshore wind areas will take place in early 2024 instead of in December this year, as originally planned.