Oslo: Norwegian oil company Equinor and Italian rival Eni plan to develop a floating wind farm in the North Sea as part of its expansion in renewable energy production. The company said on Thursday. The Norwegian government has designated two areas in the North Sea to provide up to 4.5 million watts of floating and fixed wind turbine capacity, and plans to submit further details to parliament by next month.

Floating wind farm

Equinor stated that it has a 69.6% stake in Vanni and a 30.4% stake in Norway’s HitecVision to apply for an offshore wind farm in Utsira Nord, which is one of the two areas promoted by the government. . "Beihai has some of the best wind energy resources in the world," said Pal Eitheim, head of Equinor's new energy solutions.

The offshore floating wind farm in Usira Nord may be the next large-scale project to promote the industrialization of offshore floating wind power and create new opportunities for Norwegian industry. The development cost of floating wind farms is higher than that of turbines that are fixed on the seabed but located in deeper waters. Equinor already operates one such facility on the coast of Scotland and is building a further pilot project in Norway. However, analysts said that the development of offshore floating wind power in Norway is still unprofitable without subsidies. The Valgron joint venture also announced previously that it is cooperating with Agder Energi, a utility company in southern Norway, to seek offshore wind farms in Norway. Editor/XuNing