At 12:55 p.m. local time on Sunday, the largest wind farm in the world produced its first energy off the coast of Norway.
The wind farm was developed by the Norwegian state oil company Equinor to power its North Sea oil and gas production, so this isn’t the victory for the environment that you might assume.
In a statement, Geir Tungesvik, executive vice president for Projects, Drilling, and Procurement at Equinor, said: “I am happy that we have today begun production at Hywind Tampen, Norway’s first and the world’s largest floating wind farm.” This project is special since it is the first wind farm to ever power oil and gas production facilities.
According to CNBC, TheHywind Tampenwind farm is situated about 86.9 miles off the coast of Norway. When finished, it will feature 11 turbines that can produce 88 MW of power. In 2022, just seven will be operational, but those seven will still produce 60 MW, which is more than any other offshore wind farm, according to Equinor. The remaining four will be set up in 2023 when the weather is clear.
The project is contradictory despite its great wattage, though. The Gullfaks oil and gas field received the first power generated on Sunday, and the wind farm will ultimately supply power to Snorre and Gullfaks as well.
According to Equinor, the wind farm will help the North Sea become a source of both clean energy and fossil fuels by lowering the two fields’ annual carbon dioxide emissions by about 200,000 tonnes and providing about 35% of their electricity demands. According to UPI, Norway presently uses renewable energy sources to meet the majority of its own energy demands, but it also exports gas and oil to other nations. In the near run, this has been beneficial for Europe as Russia cut back on gas exports after the invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing sanctions.
Hywind Tampen enhances gas export to Europe while reducing emissions from the oil and gas sector. According to a statement from Equinor‘s executive vice president for Exploration and Production Norway, Kjetil Hove, this is a significant contribution to changing the Norwegian continental shelf from an oil and gas province to a broad energy province. Nobody would have imagined that offshore sites might be powered by electricity from floating wind turbines just a few years ago. We’ve officially started now.
However, the scientific community agrees that in order to mitigate the worst effects of the climate disaster, countries must immediately cease the production and combustion of fossil fuels. A study from the Tyndall Centre at The University of Manchester, released in March, found that in order to have a 50% chance of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, 19 wealthy nations, including Norway, must stop producing oil and gas by 2034.
This will also give poorer countries a chance to switch to alternative energy sources without experiencing economic instability.
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While the urgent need for a worldwide phase-out of coal production is well acknowledged, this analysis makes it abundantly obvious why a phase-out of oil and gas production is also necessary.
And it demonstrates the need for a swift wind-down with a deadline. In response to the report, Connie Hedegaard, a former European Commissioner for Climate Action and current Minister for Climate and Energy in Denmark, said that increasing the production of fossil fuels was also ineffective at resolving energy crises like the one brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Recent geopolitical events have sadly brought this urgency to light and made it clearly evident that there are many reasons why the world needs to stop depending on fossil fuels and hasten the switch to clean energy.
An industry whose ongoing operation is incompatible with an equitable transition and a livable environment could be viewed as greenwashing in this situation if wind power is used to support oil and gas development.
