Climate Change > Norway's Field of Dreams - 140km offshore

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World's largest floating offshore wind farm starts full service,

Norway's Equinor says

By Daniel J. Graeber

Crown Prince Haakon Magnus of Norway connects two cables to mark the official opening of the Hywind Tampen wind farm.

To his left, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Equinor’s Vice President for Renewables in Norway

Siri Espedal Kindem. Opposite, Equinor’s Executive Vice President for the Norwegian continental shelf Kjetil Hove. 

Photo courtesy of Ole Jorgen Bratland/Equinor

Aug. 23 (UPI) -- The crown prince of Norway on Wednesday connected the cables to mark the inaugural start of operations at the Hywind Tampen offshore wind farm, which energy company Equinor said is the world's largest.

Some of the turbines started spinning from the floating, offshore Hywind Tampen facility in the Norwegian waters of the North Sea last year, though the full capacity was only realized in August. Haakon Magnus, the crown prince of Norway, was joined Wednesday by the country's prime minister and other dignitaries in connecting the cables that marked the formal start of operations at the facility.

Used to help power the infrastructure at the Gullfaks and Snorre oil and gas fields in the North Sea, Equinor said the wind facility is expected to cut some 200,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually from the North Sea producers.

"Today marks a new milestone," said Siri Kindem, head of Equinor's renewables business in Norway. "With Hywind Tampen, we have shown that we can plan, build and commission a large, floating offshore wind farm in the North Sea."

The 11 turbines that make up the floating wind farm combine for a peak capacity of 88 megawatts. That should cover about 35% of the energy demand for the five offshore platforms in the North Sea.

OMGosh! 35% of the energy demand for 5 offshore oil platforms! That's it! This article carefully avoids talking about the cost of creating this field of dreams. The thousands of tons of concrete that needed to be dragged 140 km offshore and chained to the ocean floor, must have cost a fortune. They blame Covid and the Ukraine war for excessive costs as if the next field of dreams will be built without any problems in the world. 

Norway has one of the fastest-growing markets for offshore wind and its economy is unique. It's a major oil and gas producer for a region increasingly looking for non-Russian resources, but it also powers most of its economy with renewable energy resources.

Last week, its government said that three energy companies were awarded acreage in the North Sea to store carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas. The nation's energy regulator believes the North Sea has the potential to store more than 80 billion tons of CO2, which is the equivalent of 1,000 years worth of Norwegian emissions.

Another way of stating that is that Norway doesn't produce enough CO2 emissions to make any measurable difference in the global temperature.

Equinor said it took five years to bring Hywind Tampen from concept to completion. About 60% of the support contracts were awarded to Norwegian firms.