World’s Biggest Floating Offshore Wind Farm Officially Opens

Norway-headquartered firm Equinor successfully developed and is now operating Hywind Tampen, which comprises 11 8.6 megawatt (MW) turbines. It is about 140 km off the coast of Norway in a water depth of between 260 and 300 meters.

It successfully produced the first power in November 2022 and reached its full output earlier this month. On 23 August, it officially launched Norway’s first-ever floating offshore wind farm and the world’s first-ever floating wind farm powering offshore oil and gas platforms. The floating wind farms, a new technology installed in the deeper waters, boast wind turbines fixed to the floating bases anchored to the seafloor.

Offshore Wind Farm — Representation Image

Equinor’s 94.6 MW, €488 million assignment will extend electricity for the Snorre and Gullfaks oil and gas fields located in the Norwegian North Sea. It’s also expected to satisfy about 35% of the five platforms’ annual power needs.

Equinor further asserted that Hywind Tampen will reduce the requirement for locally produced gas power, thereby reducing yearly field emissions by approximately 200,000 tons of CO2, which equals emissions from nearly 100,000 vehicles.

Norway leads the world in electric cars per capita. It is aiming at 30 GW of offshore wind by 2040. But the Scandinavian nation is Western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer. The petroleum sector makes up nearly 40% of Norway’s exports and about 14% of the gross domestic product.

Norway’s government further mentioned that it will work to cut the nation’s net emissions by 55% by 2030 from the earlier 1990 levels. That is aligned with the EU targets. But unlike EU neighbours, Norway states that its move to clean energy will be gradual and that it has no desire to give up on oil and gas exploration.

References: CNBC, electric.co

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