Norway’s METCentre Gets Green Light to Test More Floating Wind Turbines

December 8, 2023, by Adnan Memija

The Marine Energy Test Centre (METCentre) in Norway has been granted final approval for new test concessions for floating offshore wind.

METCentre was given the green light for five new wind turbines offshore Norway.

The Norwegian test centre is developing new infrastructure to be ready in 2026. In total, seven turbines will be tested in the rough North Sea conditions.

“With this important expansion of our test activities, we will take big leaps in developing floating technology and bringing down costs in this industry. This will provide valuable learning and knowledge to be utilized at Utsira Nord and other floating wind parks,” said the CEO of METCentre and Norwegian Offshore Wind, Arvid Nesse.

Currently, there are two test turbines in the water in Norway. Zefyros is the world’s first floating turbine, developed by Equinor and installed in 2009, and now, it is operated and owned by Unitech Offshore.

Developed by Stiesdal Offshore with partners Shell, RWE, and TEPCO Renewable Power, the TetraSpar Demonstrator was installed in 2021.

According to our previous news, some floating wind technologies that will be installed at the offshore site include the Bluewater and Flagship projects and Hexicon’s and SeaTwirl’s wind turbines.

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“An important part of our government’s offshore wind investment is to facilitate technology development and competence building, which, among other things, is important for bringing costs down,” said Norway’s Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Terje Aasland.

“The METCentre is already doing an important job of testing the technology both for power production itself and for the environment, and with this expansion they can test even more technologies.”

According to Norwegian Offshore Wind, most of the slots are already booked and there is a long waiting list of technologies interested.

“Many new concepts are very exciting, and full scale testing is instrumental in building a strong supply chain for future large-scale commercial floating projects,” said Nesse.