At Jelsa today, Norsk Stein operates the largest quarry in Europe. An operation which will reach its sunset in the next decade. Now, we’re working on transforming the quarry into a state-of-the-art facility for the wind industry. Our deliverables will be production of concrete foundations and assembly of wind turbines to floating offshore wind farms in Norway and Europe.
The world's energy needs are increasing, and climate challenges require more low-emission energy production. Offshore wind is considered an important part of the green transition, with floating offshore wind as a significant part of the new developments in the decades to come. The construction of floating foundations in concrete can use Norwegian expertise and raw materials, can produce energy for Norwegian offshore wind farms, and can also be an important export product for Norway.
Floating wind turbines require other solutions for production than bottom-fixed offshore wind turbines. Adapted, large facilities are required to develop a competitive industry for such production, in order to ensure that floating offshore wind have a similar cost reduction as we have seen for bottom-fixed installations. The establishment of WindWorks Jelsa as a large-scale, efficient and low-emission production site for floating offshore wind will be a significant contribution to this.
WindWorks Jelsa has launched a feasibility study to investigate whether the quarry at Jelsa can be developed into a competitive facility for the production of concrete foundations and assembly of finished wind turbines – ready for discharge and installation. The intention is to create an open facility where companies that will install floating offshore wind, can carry out the construction and assembly of floating turbines.
The facility at Jelsa is expected to have significant local and regional ripple effects on procurement and jobs. In the same way that NorSea's bases are centers for extensive operations related to the current offshore operations, WindWorks Jelsa is expected to potentially become a center for future offshore wind suppliers.
Our central North Sea location enables rapid towage to European ports, securing local assembly, commissioning and wind farm installation of the turbine generators
Large areas with high bearing capacity and major drydock solution
Planned to be ready for Utsira Nord floating offshore wind farm
Large scale production of floating wind turbine foundations; up to 1 GW/year
Ideal facility for concrete floaters – the most sustainable option for lowering carbon footprint, reducing costs and securing local content
Local aggregates and supply of decarbonised cement
Assembly of complete wind turbines, ready for tow-out to installation sites
Deep water access in sheltered waters with low tidal variations
Open site available to all developers and builders
Low carbon footprint development of site
Significant contribution to the development of Norwegian offshore wind industry, through the creation of thousands of jobs and a large supplier ecosystem
We aim to support the growing floating offshore wind industry. By lowering emissions and costs from the building of wind turbine generators. And basing it on 60 years of expertise from the Norwegian offshore industry.