Biggest Floating Offshore Wind Park Powers North Sea Oil

(Bloomberg) -- New energy will be used to power old as the world’s biggest floating wind farm sends electricity to major oil fields in the North Sea.

The Hywind Tampen wind park, which officially opened Wednesday, is powering five oil and gas platforms operated by Equinor ASA as the Norwegian energy behemoth grapples with mounting pressure to slash emissions.

More such projects are likely to follow, with European peers Shell Plc and TotalEnergies SE also investing in floating wind. But it’s still a nascent — and expensive — technology, and capacity will continue to be dwarfed by fixed offshore turbines.

“With Hywind Tampen, we have shown that we can plan, build and commission a large, floating offshore wind farm in the North Sea,” said Siri Kindem, head of Equinor’s renewables business in Norway. “We will build bigger, reduce costs and build a new industry on the shoulders of the oil and gas industry.”

The cost of the 11-turbine project soared during development as the pandemic, supply-chain delays and a weak kroner all pressured the budget. The bill rose to about 7.4 billion kroner ($690 million) from the 5 billion kroner first estimated — still 35% less per megawatt than its sister project in Scotland.

Norway’s oil and gas industry is targeting a 50% reduction in direct carbon emissions by the end of the decade and net zero by 2050. While electrification from shore is still seen as the most viable option for slashing emissions, offshore wind and carbon capture are likely to play a role.

Located almost 90 miles off Bergen, Hywind Tampen has a capacity of 88 megawatts, enough to meet 35% of demand from the five platforms at the Gullfaks and Snorre fields, according to Equinor. The first turbines began generating power last year, and after the last one was added in July, the site is now fully operational.

They replace two 20-megawatt natural gas generators in an area where wind speeds are about 20 kilometers an hour (12 miles an hour) on a normal day. With the tips of the blades reaching some 190 meters (620 feet) above the sea, the 22,000 metric-ton machines are operated from a control center in Bergen.

“We have proven that floating offshore wind is possible,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said in an interview. When it comes to future offshore wind projects — both floating and fixed — the Norwegian government will “offer support, but as little as possible and as much as required,” he said.

“But when you look at it from a historical perspective, we haven’t had big technological breakthroughs without some element of support,” he said from the Gullfaks C platform. “Either in the form of orders, or in the form of economic contributions, or both.”

The installed global capacity of floating turbines is set to rise to 23.3 gigawatts by 2035 from about 200 megawatts today, according to BloombergNEF. Fixed offshore turbines are expected to increase eightfold to 509 gigawatts. The UK, South Korea and the US are due to add the most floating wind in coming years.

(Updates with comment from prime minister in 9th paragraph)

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