Norway's giant floating wind farm will power oil and gas production

Norway has begun construction of the world's largest offshore floating, wind farm on the country's west coast to provide energy produced from nearby oil and gas fields, Electrek reports. .

Floating offshore wind power plants can be quite beneficial in the North Sea, which has historically had high wind speeds. Last year we reported on how Scotland's 50 MW offshore floating wind farm capable of powering 55,000 homes is ready to go. As the year draws to a close, another wind farm off the UK's Yorkshire coast with a capacity to generate 1.3 GW of energy also comes online.

It should come as no surprise that to the north and east, Norway is also working to take advantage of these winds.

The world's largest offshore wind farm

Called Hywind Tampen, the floating wind farm has a projected capacity of 88 MW and consists of 11 wind turbines built on a floating concrete structure anchored by a shared system, the project's press release said. show.
The project is located 87 miles (140 km) off the Norwegian coast and the turbines will remain afloat at depths of 853 - 984 feet (260-300 m). To date, four of the 11 wind turbines have been installed, upgraded from a planned 8 MW to 8.6 MW. Power generation is expected to commence in the third quarter of 2022 and the full capacity will be used to meet part of the energy needs of the offshore oil and gas fields of Snorre and Gullfaks.

Equinor, a Norwegian power company and one of the partners in the project, claims that the floating wind farm will meet about 35% of the annual energy needs of fossil fuel platforms, and at the same time help cut 200,000 tons of CO2 emissions and 1,000 tons of NOx emissions per year .

The press release also states that the project will also support industrialization and cost reduction solutions for future offshore wind power projects.

Why oil and gas?

Once operational, the Hywind Tampen project will oversee the reduction of gas turbine use at oil and gas fields in the region. While this is a welcome move, it also points to some long-term problems.

While Norway leads the world in the use of electric cars, it is also the fifth-largest exporter of oil and the third-largest exporter of natural gas, Nordic Energy Research's website says. Petroleum products account for 60% of Norway's exports and the country is unlikely to convert this oil supply to meet EU climate targets.

By investing in a project that makes a polluting project a little bit greener, Norway hopes to keep producing oil for much longer, and with additional capacity in the future, the country even can even claim that their manufacturing process is 100% green.