The 'world's biggest floating current farm' delivers its first power

November 16, 2022: -A facility described as the biggest floating current farm in the world produced its first power in the weekend, with turbines set to come online in the year is out.

On Monday, Norwegian energy company Equinor, better named for its work in gas industry, power production from Hywind Tampen’s initial wind turbine took place on Sunday afternoon.

While wind to a renewable energy source, Hywind Tampon will help power operations in oil and gas fields in the North Sea. Equinor said Hywind Tampen’s initial power was sent to the Gullfaks oil and gas field.

“I am proud that we have started production at Hywind Tampon, Norway’s first and the largest floating wind farm,” Geir Tungesvik, Equinor’s vice president for projects, which drills and procurement, said.

“This is a unique project, the initial wind farm in the world that powers producing oil and gas installations.”

Hywind Tampen locating around 140 kilometres off the coast of Norway, in depths which range from 260 to 300 meters.

Seven of the farm’s turbines are slated to visit on stream in 2022, with the remaining four installed in 2023. When complete, Equinor noted that it would have a system capacity of 88 megawatts.

Alongside Equinor, the different companies included in the project are Vår Energi, Petoro, Wintershall Dea and OMV.

Equinor stated that Hywind Tampen expects to meet nearly 35% of the Gullfaks and Snorre fields’ electricity demand. “This cuts CO2 emissions from the fields by almost 200,000 tonnes per year,” the company further said.

The use of a floating wind farm which helps power the production of fossil fuels, is likely to spark a little controversy, however.

Fossil fuels’ effect on the environment is being considered. The United Nations stated that, from the 19th century, “human activities being the main driver of climate adaptation, primarily because of the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.”

Referring to the COP27 climate change summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in the previous week, the U.N. Secretary-General issued a stark warning to attendees.

“We are fighting our lives, and we are losing,” Antonio Guterres stated. “Greenhouse gas emissions keep increasing, global temperatures keep rising, and our planet is approaching tipping points that make climate chaos irreversible.”