Power production from the first turbine in the floating Hywind Tampen wind farm in the North Sea began this week, according to Equinor. The power was delivered to the Gullfaks A platform in the North Sea. Owned by the Gullfaks and Snorre partners, the Hywind Tampen wind farm in Norway is expected to meet about 35% of the electricity demand of the two fields.
“I am proud that we have now started production at Hywind Tampen, Norway’s first and the world’s largest floating wind farm. This is a unique project, the first wind farm in the world powering producing oil and gas installations,” says Geir Tungesvik, Equinor’s executive vice president for projects, drilling and procurement.
“The Norwegian content of the project is about 60 percent,” adds Tungesvik. “This shows that we, together with our partners and suppliers, are building a new industry on the shoulders of the oil and gas business utilizing the competencies we together have acquired over many decades.”
Seven of 11 turbines are scheduled to come on stream during the year. The last four turbines have been assembled this autumn and will be installed on the field during a weather window next year. Even with just seven turbines on stream, Hywind Tampen will be the world’s largest floating wind farm, with a capacity of 60 MW.
“Hywind Tampen cuts emissions from the oil and gas industry and increases the gas export to Europe,” comments Kjetil Hove, Equinor’s executive vice president for exploration and production, Norway. “This is an important contribution towards transforming the Norwegian continental shelf from an oil and gas province to a broad energy province. Just a few years ago, no one would have believed that offshore platforms could be powered by electricity from floating wind turbines. Well, now we have started.”
The farm’s partners include Equinor, Petoro, OMV, Vår Energi, Wintershall Dea and INPEX Idemitsu. Hywind Tampen has a system capacity of 88 MW. The wind farm is located some 140 kilometers from shore. The turbines are installed on a floating concrete structure with a joint mooring system.
Enova and the Business Sector’s NoX Fund have supported the project by NOK 2.3 billion and NOK 566 million respectively to stimulate technology development within offshore wind and emission reductions.
