This Wednesday the Hywind Tampen, the world’s largest floating wind farm, was inaugurated in the Norwegian North Sea. The once turbines that make up the park, located 140 kilometers from the west coast, are installed on a concrete structure with a joint mooring system. Planned production is 88 megawatts a year, which will cover about 35% of the energy needs of two nearby oil and gas platforms.
The park will also help reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 200,000 tons per year and nitric oxide emissions by 1,000 tons, the state energy consortium Equinor, the main promoter of the initiative, explained in a statement. The project, which was already partially commissioned in November, but was not fully operational until now, has a cost of 7,400 million Norwegian crowns (691 million euros), 40% of the initial estimate.
“Today we are writing history. Both we and Europe need more energy. The war in Ukraine has reinforced that situation. And energy must be renewable if Europe is to meet its climate targets,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store declared at the inauguration , at which Crown Prince Haakon was also present.
Equinor stressed that the Hywind Tampen represents a “first step” for the development of a new offshore wind industry in this Nordic country. Norway currently covers between 30 and 40% of the European Union’s gas demand, after replacing Russia as the main supplier at the end of last year after the military intervention in Ukraine.
