Floating is the future of offshore wind

What are the main advantages of floating wind?

• Winds are stronger and more consistent further out to sea.
• By using floating turbines, we are able to place the wind farm where the wind is best, gaining a higher capacity factor.
• Close to 80% of the world’s offshore wind resource potential is in waters deeper than 60 metres
• Removing water depth constraints allows us to select the best sites

How do wind turbines float?

Most offshore wind floater designs are familiar from the oil and gas industry.

Floating wind turbines are moored to the seabed with multiple mooring lines and anchors, in much the same way that a floating oil platform is moored.

Developing floating offshore wind

With more than a decade of operating experience from floating offshore wind, Equinor is a leading floating offshore wind developer with floating wind turbines already deployed and in production. Our offshore experience and project management expertise from the North Sea and around the world, makes us uniquely qualified to lead the way and further develop floating offshore wind in a safe and efficient way.

Equinor will always select the best suited floating wind technology for our projects.

Building on Hywind (see below), Equinor has developed a new floating concept for South Korea together with the South Korean value chain. This concept, the Wind Semi, is a semisubmersible wind turbine. Based on our design principles, the Wind Semi will give optimal stability and power production and facilitate large scale industrialisation of floating wind. Additionally, it will allow for local fabrication and assembly, encouraging local supply chain development.