Fact Check: Diving into claims Norway installed underwater turbines for energy production

Claim:

In June 2025, photographs accurately reported Norway had developed and installed underwater turbines for energy production that were friendly to marine life.

Rating:

Context:

The meme in circulation falsely claimed these turbines existed in Norway. However, there used to be an underwater turbine prototype in the country. Further, underwater tidal turbines are currently in operation in Scotland.

In late June and early July 2025, a rumor began to spread online that Norway had installed marine-life friendly, underwater turbines that “harness power from ocean currents” for energy production.

For example, a Facebook post on the Eu Corner page featured an image of the supposed submerged turbines, each of which sported a Norwegian flag painted on its base (archived):

The post had received 4,300 reactions and 2,000 reshares as of this writing. The caption underneath read:

Deep beneath the North Sea, Norwegian engineers have deployed a new class of turbines unlike any seen before. Instead of standing above water catching the breeze, these massive structures sit beneath the waves, silently rotating with powerful ocean currents. Dubbed “SeaSpinners”, these turbines offer clean, round-the-clock energy — and a surprisingly gentle presence in the marine ecosystem.

Each SeaSpinner uses a helical turbine design — similar to corkscrews — which allows them to spin regardless of current direction. Anchored to the seafloor, the turbine arrays rotate with slow, consistent motion, harnessing the kinetic energy of deep-sea currents, which are more stable and predictable than wind.

The same image and text appeared on other Facebook posts, including one on the neil degrasse tyson page that had gained 54,000 reactions and 10,000 shares.

Clues in the images revealed that they had probably been generated by artificial intelligence. For example, the turbines did not always count the same number of blades. Some had three, while others had four. The placement of the blades on each turbine was irregular, not following a standard pattern. Running the image through an AI detector, we were able to confirm this was not a real image.

To be sure, Snopes ran several other images posted on the Eu Corner Facebook page through the AI detector, confirming each had been AI-generated.

The long caption below the image named no company or government project responsible for these alleged turbines. Further, Google and Google News searches revealed no reputable news outlet reported such turbines off the coast of Norway. For this reason, we deemed the rumor false.

However, tidal turbines that are friendly to sea life are not science fiction. In 2003, the prototype of a three-bladed underwater turbine was installed in the Kvalsund Channel near the northernmost tip of Norway. It began producing energy in 2004, but was removed in 2012. An environmental audit revealed that the impact on sea life had been minimal. This led to the installation of three more turbines in the Pentland Firth, a strait in the north of Scotland.

Further, the Scotland-based company Nova Innovation developed such turbines and began to install them in 2016 off the Shetland Islands, according to a CNN video report. This was the “world’s first offshore tidal array” of turbines. Nova Innovation’s turbines do not look like the ones in the image that had been circulating, however. They only had two blades rather than the three or four blades on each supposed Norwegian underwater turbine.

In addition, Norway did create a farm of offshore wind turbines with one specificity: They float. The world’s first wind farm of its kind, it opens the possibility of installing three-bladed wind turbines further from the shores, at deeper ocean floor depths:

Sources:

Equinor. “Hywind Tampen.” Www.equinor.com, www.equinor.com/energy/hywind-tampen. Accessed 3 July 2025.

“Kvalsund Tidal Turbine Prototype | Tethys.” Tethys.pnnl.gov, tethys.pnnl.gov/project-sites/kvalsund-tidal-turbine-prototype. Accessed 3 July 2025.

TETHYS. “MeyGen Tidal Energy Project | Tethys.” Tethys.pnnl.gov, tethys.pnnl.gov/project-sites/meygen-tidal-energy-project. Accessed 3 July 2025.

“Tidal — Nova Innovation | World Leading Marine Energy | Tidal Energy – Floating Solar – Marine Renewables – Green – Eco – Sustainable | Edinburgh – Scotland – UK.” Nova Innovation, novainnovation.com/tidal-energy. Accessed 3 July 2025.