Norway inaugurated the world’s largest field of floating wind turbines on Wednesday in its North Sea waters.
With 11 turbines of 8.6 negawatts (MW) each, the Hywind Tampen field supplies energy to five nearby oil and gas platforms, providing around 35% of their needs.
Entering production at the end of last year, it was officially inaugurated on Wednesday by Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon and the country’s Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, some 140 km off the coast.
“Europeans and we all need more electricity. The war in Ukraine has reinforced this,” Støre was quoted as saying by Norwegian news agency NTB.
“This electricity must come from renewable sources if Europe is to meet its climate targets,” he added.
The technology used for floating wind turbines is still emerging, but it is considered promising for the energy transition.
Unlike so-called “laid” offshore wind turbines, which are fixed to foundations on the seabed, floating wind turbines are, as their name suggests, mounted on floating structures held in place by anchoring devices.
This allows them to be installed in deeper waters, further from the coast, and where the wind is more stable, but they are also more expensive.
Hywind Tampen cost some 7.4 billion kronor (€640 million) to build in depths of between 260 and 300 metres.
“Yes, it’s expensive, but someone has to lead the way,” said the prime minister.
In addition to Equinor, the project includes Norway’s state-owned Petoro group, Austria’s OMV, Vår Energi -the Norwegian subsidiary of Italy’s Eni–, Germany’s Wintershall DEA and Japan’s Inpex.
