OO-Star Wind Floater - Solutions for the Offshore Wind Industry
Bouygues Travaux Publics (BYTP) is an Oslo-based French company and one of the world's leaders in sustainable infrastructure. The company has now made a significant investment in offshore wind with floating solutions featuring the world's largest floating wind turbines. The OO-Star wind floater concept (OO-SWF), developed by the Norwegian Dr.techn. Olav Olsen, enables the support of floating solutions for wind turbines under harsh sea conditions where fixed-bottom solutions are not suitable. This solution also allows for the assembly of turbines at the dock before being towed out.
Important Investment for EU and Norway
The green transition towards a low-emission society in Europe by 2050 naturally requires a greater focus on renewable energy sources such as wind power. The challenge is that 80% of wind power must operate in water deeper than 60 meters. With OO-SWF, the project becomes a significant contributor to Europe's goal of climate neutrality. OO-SWF4Flagship is a pilot project that also introduces solutions that significantly reduce construction and installation costs, an aspect crucial to consider in the EU's objectives. Norway aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030, in addition to aligning with the EU's climate neutrality plan for 2050. In addition, the Norwegian government has recently announced that offshore wind will be a growing focus in the near future, which makes this project an important investment for both the EU and Norway.
Enova Invests in Offshore Wind
The purpose of Enova's technology programmes is to accelerate technology development and innovation that contributes to emission reductions towards a low-emission society by 2050. Fixed-bottom solutions still dominate the market at competitive prices. Despite the technology for floating solutions not being optimized and reaching full maturity, Enova viewed the project with forward-looking eyes. Enova is already well familiar with wind power and saw BYTP's project as an opportunity for the Norwegian industry to enter as a significant energy and technology supplier in the rapidly growing international offshore wind sector. The technology will be developed and improved to become attractive in the market. The grant has been crucial in reducing costs and finding sustainable solutions in all parts of the process; installation, transport, logistics, power cables, the development of physical components, etc.
