Fosen Vind is a complex of six onshore
wind farm
A wind farm, also called a wind park or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an exten ...
s in
Fosen
Fosen is a traditional district in coastal Trøndelag county, Norway. The district consists of the municipalities Osen, Åfjord, Ørland, Indre Fosen, Orkland, Heim, Hitra, and Frøya.
In colloquial speech, Fosen also refers to the Fosen ...
, Norway, commissioned in 2018-20. With a nameplate capacity of 1
GW the project is Europe's second largest onshore wind farm (second to the
Markbygden Wind Farm); it more than doubled Norway's capacity for wind power generation.
Layout
Due to its size and the geography of the chosen area, Fosen Vind is partitioned into a group of six individually named wind farms.
Technology
The site has been chosen for its wind pattern with annual yields of more than 3,600 full load hours close to 9 m/s, similar to offshore sites.
The complex of six wind farms will comprise 278 wind turbines from Vestas
Vestas Wind Systems A/S is a Danish manufacturer, seller, installer, and servicer of wind turbines that was founded in 1945. The company operates manufacturing plants in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan, India, Italy, Romania, the Un ...
, 248 V117 and 30 V112, each with its capacity optimized from 3.45 MW to 3.6 MW, for a total capacity of 1,000 MW.[ Each turbine has a nacelle height of 87 m and a wing span of either 117 m][ or 112 m.
The transmission lines will use ]transmission tower
A transmission tower (also electricity pylon, hydro tower, or pylon) is a tall structure, usually a lattice tower made of steel that is used to support an overhead power line. In electrical grids, transmission towers carry high-voltage transmis ...
s of composite material
A composite or composite material (also composition material) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or physical properties and are merged to create a ...
s with foundations
Foundation(s) or The Foundation(s) may refer to: Common uses
* Foundation (cosmetics), a skin-coloured makeup cream applied to the face
* Foundation (engineering), the element of a structure which connects it to the ground, and transfers loads f ...
that do not require the use of explosives
An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An exp ...
, reducing the environmental impact of the construction work.
The 71 turbine foundations for the Roan part of the farm will use rock anchor foundation technology and will be delivered by the Norwegian subsidiary of Peikko Group from April 2017 to the spring of 2018.
Economy
The expected cost of the project is €. The investors are Statkraft
Statkraft AS is a hydropower
Hydropower (from Ancient Greek -, "water"), also known as water power or water energy, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is ac ...
(52.1%), TrønderEnergi (7.9%) and a consortium ''Nordic Wind Power DA'' (40.0%) backed by Credit Suisse
Credit Suisse Group AG (, ) was a global Investment banking, investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. According to UBS, eventually Credit Suisse was to be fully integrated into UBS. While the integration ...
.[
The ]levelised cost of energy
The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is a measure of the average net present cost of electricity generation for a generator over its lifetime. It is used for investment planning and to compare different methods of electricity generation on a ...
(LCoE) is estimated in the range 35 €/MWh to 40 €/MWh, which is below a typical Norwegian wind farm price of 44 €/MWh and described as a ''rock-bottom price'' obtained via economies of scale
In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of Productivity, output produced per unit of cost (production cost). A decrease in ...
.[
The project will receive government subsidies in the form of tradeable green certificates, which are typically valued at 15 €/MWh. Together with a current system price around 18 €/MWh to 20 €/MWh, the operator will likely receive the lower estimate of the LCoE.][
Of the expected annual production of 3.4 TWh (corresponding to 3,400 full load hours), about one third will actually be sold to ]Norsk Hydro
Norsk Hydro ASA (often referred to as just ''Hydro'') is a Norway, Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. It is one of the largest aluminium companies worldwide. It has operations in some 50 countries around th ...
as baseload
The base load (also baseload) is the minimum level of demand on an electrical grid over a span of time, for example, one week. This demand can be met by unvarying power plants or dispatchable generation, depending on which approach has the best mi ...
supply for their aluminium
Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...
production under a power purchase agreement. Specifically, the agreement stipulates delivery of around 0.6 TWh in 2020, around 1.0 TWh annually from 2021-2035 and 0.7 TWh annually from 2036-2039, for a total of about 18 TWh over a 20-year period.
Criticism
On August 20, 2016, five days into the construction, two hundred people gathered at the construction site to protest against the project. Norges Naturvernforbund criticized the choice of site as a reindeer
The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, taiga, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only re ...
habitat of great importance to southern Sami
Acronyms
* SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft
* Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company
* South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ne ...
reindeer herders. The reindeer herders have demanded that the district court
District courts are a category of courts which exists in several nations, some call them "small case court" usually as the lowest level of the hierarchy.
These courts generally work under a higher court which exercises control over the lower co ...
stop the construction work, citing violations of human rights and rights of indigenous people. In response, Fosen Vind cited their possession of necessary permits and declined to halt construction.[
The disagreement led to a trial before the Høyesterett (Supreme Court), which Fosen Vind and the Norwegian state lost, on the basis of breaking human rights. Despite the ruling, the windmills have not been dismantled, increasing tension between the Sami people and the Norwegian state.
On February 23, 2023, the 500 day anniversary of the court verdict, several protesters from the youth wing of the ]Norwegian Sámi Association
The Norwegian Sámi Association ( ; ; ; ), also known as NSR, is the largest Sámi organization in Norway. The association was founded in 1968.
Purpose
The NSR actively runs cultural, social, and informational work through local groups and Sá ...
and Nature and Youth
Natur og Ungdom (NU) which translates to Nature and Youth, also known in English as Young Friends of the Earth Norway, is a Norway, Norwegian youth environmental protection organisation. It is the only environmentalism, environmentalist youth o ...
gathered outside the entrance of the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy
The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Energy () is a Norwegian ministry responsible for energy, including petroleum and natural gas production in the North Sea. It is led by Minister of Energy Terje Aasland of the Labour Party since 2022. The depar ...
in Oslo
Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...
to protest against the lack of action from the government. The protesters blocked the entrance, sleeping there overnight, and refused to move until the government obeys the court ruling. In the afternoon of February 27, protesters, including Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg
Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg (; born 3January 2003) is a Swedish climate activist, climate and political activist initially known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action to climate change mitigation, mitigate the effec ...
, chained themselves to the building to block access, but were removed by police by that night.
See also
*Hitra Wind Farm
Hitra Wind Farm is a 24-turbine wind farm located in Hitra Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway and operated by Statkraft. The farm is located on top of the Elsfjellet plateau in the central part of the island of Hitra, just south of the v ...
*Renewable energy in Norway
Norway is a heavy producer of renewable energy because of hydropower. Over 99% of the electricity production in mainland Norway is from 31 GW hydropower plants (86 TWh reservoir capacity, storing water from summer to winter). The average hydrop ...
*List of largest power stations in the world
This article lists the largest Electricity generation, power stations in the world, the ten overall and the five of each type, in terms of installed electrical Nameplate capacity, capacity. Non-renewable resource, Non-renewable power stations are ...
*List of onshore wind farms
This is a list of the largest onshore wind farms that are currently operational, rated by generating Nameplate capacity, capacity. Also listed are onshore wind farms with notability other than size, and largest proposed projects.
Largest oper ...
References
{{Reflist
Fosen
Wind farms in Norway