The world's largest floating wind farm is now officially open — and helping to power North Sea oil operations

A installation described arsenic "the world's largest floating offshore upwind farm" was officially opened by Crown Prince Haakon of Norway connected Wednesday, marking the culmination of a large renewable vigor task years successful the making.

Located astir 140 kilometers (86.9 miles) disconnected the seashore of Norway successful depths ranging from 260 to 300 meters, Hywind Tampen uses 11 turbines. The upwind workplace produced its archetypal power successful Nov. 2022 and became afloat operational this month.

While upwind is simply a renewable vigor source, Hywind Tampen helps powerfulness operations astatine lipid and state fields, the thought being that it volition chopped these sites' c dioxide emissions successful the process.

"Hywind Tampen has a strategy capableness of 88 MW and is expected to screen astir 35 per cent of the yearly request for energy connected the 5 platforms Snorre A and B and Gullfaks A, B and C," Norwegian vigor steadfast Equinor said.

Floating offshore upwind turbines are antithetic from fixed-bottom offshore upwind turbines, which are rooted to the seabed. One vantage of floating turbines is that they tin beryllium installed successful acold deeper waters than fixed-bottom ones.

In caller years a scope of companies and large economies like the U.S. person laid retired goals to ramp up floating upwind installations.

Equinor, a large subordinate successful the fossil substance industry, describes the turbines astatine Hywind Tampen arsenic being "mounted connected floating factual structures with a communal anchoring system."

Alongside Equinor, partners successful the Hywind Tampen task see Vår Energi, INPEX Idemitsu, Petoro, Wintershall Dea and OMV.

The task disconnected Norway's seashore marks Equinor's latest determination successful the floating upwind sector. Back successful 2017, it started operations astatine Hywind Scotland, a five-turbine, 30 MW installation it calls the planet's archetypal floating upwind farm.

"With Hywind Tampen, we person shown that we tin plan, physique and committee a large, floating offshore upwind workplace successful the North Sea," Equinor's Siri Kindem, who heads up the firm's renewables concern successful Norway, said successful a statement.

"We volition usage the acquisition and learning from this task to go adjacent better," she added. "We volition physique bigger, trim costs and physique a caller manufacture connected the shoulders of the lipid and state industry."

Powering the lipid and state industry

The usage of a floating upwind workplace to assistance powerfulness the fossil substance manufacture is apt to spark important statement astatine a clip erstwhile discussions astir clime alteration and the situation are astatine the beforehand and halfway of galore people's minds.

This is due to the fact that fossil fuels' effect connected the situation is considerable. The United Nations says that, since the 19th century, "human activities person been the main operator of clime change, chiefly owed to burning fossil fuels similar coal, lipid and gas."

"Burning fossil fuels generates greenhouse state emissions that enactment similar a broad wrapped astir the Earth, trapping the sun's vigor and raising temperatures," it adds.

The stakes are high. Speaking astatine the COP27 clime alteration acme successful Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, past year, the U.N. Secretary General issued a stark warning to attendees.

"We are successful the combat of our lives, and we are losing," Antonio Guterres said.

"Greenhouse state emissions support growing, planetary temperatures support rising, and our satellite is accelerated approaching tipping points that volition marque clime chaos irreversible."