THE WINDY HELGELAND PROJECT
A third of Europe's wind power potential lies along the Norwegian continental shelf. Along with Australia, Norway has the largest national potential for wind power in the world. At the middle of the Norwegian coast, west of Mo i Rana, Westcon Helgeland and their partners are in the startup to be a major player in the development of offshore floating wind energy. The innovative company will do so by establishing a highly efficient plant for the construction of concrete-based foundations for floating wind turbines, combined with a state-of-the-art and efficient facility for assembling the wind turbine. The goal is to establish the construction site with the lowest CO2 emissions in the world.
OCEAN WIND NESNA
Over many years, Westcon Helgeland has proven to be an innovative and dynamic stayer among the region's workshop industry. The ambitions for offshore wind energy cannot be achieved by Westcon Helgeland alone and the company has therefore established the project as a partnership to secure relevant international project management and expertise.
​
OCEAN WIND NESNA's partners started the project by looking at all stages of production with an open and innovative mind and a carefully look for improvements. Particular attention has been paid to the actual production method for the concrete foundations, the assembly, infrastructure, logistics and the foundation storage. The result of this is a completely unique production line where everything is indoors until assembly. The assembly itself has had particular priority, and the windmills can be produced ready-made without lifting higher than 20 metres.
Westcon's facility at Nesna is located just 50 minutes from Mo i Rana, where Celsa Armeringstål and Celsa Steelservice have their reinforcing steel production. Here are also the production facilities of Helgeland Betong, one of the region's oldest and most reputable suppliers of ready-mixed concrete. All aggregates for the concrete are sourced locally in the Ranafjord area with short transport distances. Better locations for low CO2 emissions are difficult, if not impossible, to find.
Westcon will not only focus on concrete foundations, but also specialize in SPAR design, a concept so far only used on Equinor's Hywind Tampen project. The design was previously used for a pilot, Highwind Scotland, where it was recorded as a record renewable energy capacity factor of 65%.
​
Spar buoy provides a very high capacity, proven with 13% greater capacity than competing designs, whether on steel or concrete foundations. Operating efficiency will be a decisive factor for future wind farm projects, especially smaller projects and for some of the potentially larger projects on the Norwegian continental shelf.
