Enova awards NOK 3.94bn to two floating wind demos off Karmøy

Norway's state-owned Enova will put NOK 3.94 billion (about $427 million) into two floating offshore wind projects at the METCentre test site off Karmøy in Rogaland, it announced on October 30, 2026. Fortius Offshore Wind AS gets NOK 2 billion and Fram Wind Solutions AS NOK 1.94 billion. Each plans to install two 18.5 MW floating turbines over the next five years, and Enova pays the money out if the projects are carried out.

That is 74 MW across four turbines. Enova expects them to produce 300 million kilowatt-hours a year, about the annual use of 15,000 households, which by our arithmetic implies a capacity factor near 46%; the grant works out to about NOK 53 million per megawatt (dollars at Norges Bank's October 30 rate of NOK 9.2302). Enova's own comparison is that the four equal roughly 20 average onshore turbines. Arvid Nesse, chief executive of the industry group Norwegian Offshore Wind, calls it a move "from demonstration turbines of up to 10 MW in Europe to the next generation of full-scale projects, with significantly larger turbines and foundations."

The money is for learning, and Enova lists what it wants learned: floating foundations for large turbines, their mooring systems, and methods for building and operating the installations, which it calls "among the key areas where costs must fall for floating offshore wind to become profitable." Enova chief executive Evy Glørstad said that making the technology profitable enough would be a major step toward faster, large-scale renewable deployment, which Norwegian industry and the transport sector both need to cut emissions. On the road, demand is moving already: new passenger cars in Norway were 98.8% electric in September, per our October report.

Fortius appears to be Deep Wind Offshore's project. Norwegian Offshore Wind names the winners as Deep Wind Offshore and Fram Wind Solutions, and Norway's company register puts Knut Vassbotn, managing director of Deep Wind Offshore, on the board of Fortius. Neither announcement names a turbine maker or a floater design.

The competition was oversubscribed. Five companies applied for a total of NOK 9 billion by the February deadline, with each project eligible for up to NOK 2 billion, per Norwegian Offshore Wind, which says a decision had initially been expected in May. Fortius got the maximum. Enova says it ranked projects on energy produced per krone of support, the potential for wider adoption of the technology, carbon footprint, impact on biodiversity, and prospects for low future costs. Norwegian Offshore Wind gives the weighting: cost efficiency, measured as annual energy production per krone of support, counted for 70%, and innovation and the potential to disseminate knowledge for 30%. Projects were required to include about one to five turbines, a full-lifecycle plan, and a target start-up within five years.

Enova has taken back a floating wind award before. GoliatVind, a Barents Sea project meant to supply the Hammerfest region through the existing power cable to the electrified Goliat field, won NOK 2 billion from Enova in March 2024. Teknisk Ukeblad reported on March 19, 2026 that the project would not be finished within the deadline and that Enova had decided to withdraw the award. Fortius's NOK 2 billion is the same sum.

The site needs a bigger cable

Each of the new turbines is larger than the grid connection serving the whole test site today. METCentre's Karmøy site, about 10 km offshore, has 6 MW of floating wind in operation, the Zephyros turbine (formerly Hywind Demo) and the TetraSpar demonstrator, connected through a 22 kV subsea cable listed at 15 MW.

There is room in the licence. It allows up to 82.7 MW of generating units, and the two winners would take about 74 MW of that, which Norwegian Offshore Wind gives as their planned combined capacity.

The cable meant to carry them is still in development. METCentre's expansion plan calls for a new 13 km subsea cable, a 3.4 km land cable and offshore connection equipment, connecting the test area to the onshore grid at Skudeneshavn. The grid connection's concession is granted, and the project is "progressing towards Final Investment Decision (FID), targeted in alignment with the first test projects requiring connection." METCentre estimates land excavation starting in spring 2028 and the grid infrastructure complete in summer 2029, with earliest commissioning "around 2029, depending on commitments and timelines from test site users."

Outlook

The two awards are the kind of commitment METCentre says its cable decision is waiting for. If the grid project reaches FID on that basis and holds its summer 2029 estimate, the turbines would have a connection inside the five-year window Enova set. If the cable slips, the projects would be pressed against their own start-up target, and GoliatVind shows Enova will withdraw an award from a project that cannot finish in time. Norwegian Offshore Wind says the experience can contribute to more efficient and standardised solutions for future developments, including Utsira Nord, so the schedule at a 74 MW test site may matter well beyond Karmøy.