The ‘world’s largest floating wind farm’ produces its first power
Offices of Equinor photographed in Feb. 2019. Equinor is one of several companies looking at developing floating wind farms.
Odin Jaeger | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A facility described as the world’s largest floating wind farm produced its first power over the weekend, with more turbines set to come online before the year is out.
In a statement Monday, Norwegian energy firm Equinor — better known for its work in the oil and gas industry — said power production from Hywind Tampen’s first wind turbine took place on Sunday afternoon.
While wind is a renewable energy source, Hywind Tampen will be used to help power operations at oil and gas fields in the North Sea. Equinor said Hywind Tampen’s first power was sent to the Gullfaks oil and gas field.
“I am proud that we have now started production at Hywind Tampen, Norway’s first and the world’s largest floating wind farm,” Geir Tungesvik, Equinor’s executive vice president for projects, drilling and procurement, said.
“This is a unique project, the first wind farm in the world powering producing oil and gas installations.”
Hywind Tampen is located around 140 kilometers (86.9 miles) off the coast of Norway, in depths ranging from 260 to 300 meters.
Seven of the wind farm’s turbines are slated to come on stream in 2022, with installation of the remaining four taking place in 2023. When complete, Equinor says it will have a system capacity of 88 megawatts.
Alongside Equinor, the other companies involved in the project are Vår Energi, INPEX Idemitsu, Petoro, Wintershall Dea and OMV.
Equinor said Hywind Tampen was expected to meet around 35% of the Gullfaks and Snorre fields’ electricity demand. “This will cut CO2 emissions from the fields by about 200,000 tonnes per year,” the company added.
The use of a floating wind farm to help power the production of fossil fuels is likely to spark some controversy, however.
Fossil fuels’ effect on the environment is considerable and the United Nations says that, since the 19th century, “human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.”
Speaking at the COP27 climate change summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, last week, the U.N. Secretary General issued a stark warning to attendees.
“We are in the fight of our lives, and we are losing,” Antonio Guterres said. “Greenhouse gas emissions keep growing, global temperatures keep rising, and our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible.”
An emerging industry
Equinor said the turbines at Hywind Tampen were installed on a floating concrete structure, with a joint mooring system. One advantage of floating turbines is that they can be installed in deeper waters than fixed-bottom ones.
Back in 2017, Equinor started operations at Hywind Scotland, a five-turbine, 30 MW facility it calls the world’s first floating wind farm.
Since then, a number of major companies have made moves in the sector.
In Aug. 2021, RWE Renewables and Kansai Electric Power signed an agreement to assess the feasibility of a “large-scale floating offshore wind project” in waters off Japan’s coast.
In Sept. of that year, Norwegian company Statkraft announced a long-term purchasing agreement relating to a 50 MW floating wind farm — which it has also dubbed the “world’s largest” — off the coast of Aberdeen, Scotland.
And a few months later, in Dec. 2021, plans for three major offshore wind developments in Australia — two of which are looking to incorporate floating wind tech — were announced.
Earlier this year, meanwhile, the White House said it was targeting 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind capacity by the year 2035.
“The Biden-Harris Administration is launching coordinated actions to develop new floating offshore wind platforms, an emerging clean energy technology that will help the United States lead on offshore wind,” a statement, which was also published by U.S. Department of the Interior, said at the time.
As well as the 15 GW ambition, a “Floating Offshore Wind Shot” aims to reduce the costs of floating technologies by over 70% by the year 2035.
“Bringing floating offshore wind technology to scale will unlock new opportunities for offshore wind power off the coasts of California and Oregon, in the Gulf of Maine, and beyond,” the statement added.
Tesla has started to offer discounted financing on Cybertruck as the electric pickup truck undoubtedly turns out to be a flop.
Tesla claimed over 1 million reservations for the Cybertruck, and CEO Elon Musk said he could see Tesla producing 500,000 units per year.
However, that was before Tesla announced that the production version would be much more expensive and have a shorter range than what was initially announced.
The Cybertruck has now been in production for a year and a half, and it looks like Tesla would be lucky to sell about 10% of Musk’s goal of 500,000 units.
The automaker doesn’t report Cybertruck sales, but it is estimated that Tesla delivered roughly 40,000 Cybertrucks in 2024, and it is expected to have even more issues selling the truck this year.
Tesla has taken several steps to help sales.
We reported that Tesla launched Cybertruck leases to help move vehicles. The company is even still tucked with “Foundations Series” Cybertrucks, and we found out that Tesla buffed “Foundations Series” badges out of some trucks to sell them as cheaper regular Cybertrucks.
For the remaining “Foundations Series,” which there still are despite Tesla switching to regular Cybertruck production in October, Tesla has even offered free Supercharging for life.
Now, Tesla is stepping up its game, and it is offering discounted financing on new Cybertruck orders:
Tesla announced 1.99% APR for a limited time:
1.99% APR available for a limited time for well-qualified buyers
WIthout the “promotion”, the rate for excellent credit is 5.84%.
While Tesla is discounting the rates, it is not discounting them as much as for new Model 3 orders.
We reported earlier this week that Tesla offers 0% and 0.99% with $0 down on new Model 3 orders in the US until the end of the quarter.
Electrek’s Take
It is very possible that Tesla can’t sell more than 10,000 Cybertrucks this quarter, which would extrapolate to 40,000 units per year or less than 10% of what Elon said he would see Tesla delivering.
Now, the cheaper single motor Cybertruck should help, but by how much? It could bring Tesla to 20-30% of the volume Elon saw possible?
I think it’s fairly clear that the Cybertruck is a flop.
Tesla launched a single new vehicle in the last 5 years and it is a flop.
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Environment
Toyota launched its cheapest EV in China and it crashed the server starting at just $15,000
Toyota looks to grab a bigger share of the world’s largest EV market as it takes aim at BYD and other low-cost leaders. On Thursday, Toyota launched its cheapest EV in China, the bZ3X, starting at roughly $15,000. The new electric SUV crashed the server with over 10,000 orders in an hour.
Meet Toyota’s cheapest EV in China, the bZ3X
The bz3X is Toyota’s “first 100,000 yuan-level pure electric SUV” in China and its cheapest EV to hit the market so far.
Toyota’s Chinese joint venture, GAC-Toyota officially launched the “Bozhi 3X,” or bZ3X for short, in China on March 6. Shortly after, the company said orders for its new electric SUV were “so popular that the server crashed” after revealing prices start at just over $15,000 (109,800 yuan).
After securing over 10,000 orders in just one hour, Toyota boasted again that “the server is overwhelmed.” The launch comes after blind pre-orders opened in December, starting at just under $14,000 (100,000 yuan).
The bZ3X is available in two versions, with or without its full-scenario smart driving tech. The non-smart tech model starts at 109,800 yuan ($15,000) with five trim options while the smart driving model starts at 149,800 yuan ($20,500).
For 159,800 yuan ($22,000), the range-topping “610 Max” trim provides up to 610 km (379 miles) CLTC range from a 67.92 kWh LFP battery. The base “430 Air” gets up to 430 km (267 miles) from a 50.03 kWh LFP battery pack.
Toyota said the interior provides “a mobile space that is comfortable as home,” with front and rear seats that can fold down to provide nearly 10 feet (3 meters) of space.
Inside, the electric SUV has a 14.6″ infotainment screen with voice recognition and an 8.8″ driver display. It also includes a two-spoke multi-function steering wheel.
Toyota’s new bZ3X is its first vehicle with the Momenta 5.0 Intelligent Driving System. Powered by NVIDIA Drive AGX Orin X, it comes with 25 ADAS features, such as parallel parking, remote control parking, high-speed pilot, light traffic assist, and blind spot monitoring.
GAC-Toyota claimed it will be “one of the first automakers in the world to realize a one-stage end-to-end intelligent driving model.” With human-like intelligence, the vehicle “gets smarter and better with use.”
At 4,600 mm long, 1,875 mm wide, and 1,645 mm tall, Toyota’s cheapest EV in China is about the size of BYD’s Yuan Plus (Atto 3) at 4,455 mm long, 1,875 mm wide, and 1,615 mm tall. Starting at 115,800 yuan ($16,000), Toyota’s new bZ3X slightly undercuts BYD’s electric SUV.
What do you think of Toyota’s new electric SUV? Would you buy one for around $15,000? We’ll keep dreaming.
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