Kongsberg Maritime, a company that delivers systems for positioning, surveying, navigation and automation to offshore installations, says it will be supplying key positioning and monitoring equipment to Equinor’s Hywind Tampen floating wind farm, poised to be the largest in the world, as part of a contract with Wood PLC, an industrial solutions provider.
The 88 MW Hywind Tampen floating wind power project, located in the Norwegian North Sea, is the first of its type to supply renewable energy directly to offshore oil and gas platforms. Kongsberg Maritime will supply technologies from its existing offshore product portfolio to meet the specific challenges posed by operating in challenging environments. By using proven equipment, Kongsberg says it is able to ensure safe, tried-and-tested performance while at the same time reducing both cost and development time.
“We are delighted to be involved with this project,” says Vidar Bjørkedal, vice president of sales and customer support at Kongsberg. “Kongsberg Maritime’s offshore portfolio is a testament to the versatility of these existing technologies for use in a range of diverse applications, including wind farms.”
Kronsberg’s DPS position reference system and motion reference unit (MRU) exploit all available GNSS infrastructure to deliver continuously available, reliable position information – and is suited to monitor the location of the turbines relative to the seabed. The company notes that this will help to ensure secure, safe and optimal positioning for each unit within the wind farm.
The MRU will check roll, pitch, yaw and heave motion, informing the blade trimming system to ensure that the turbine is not overloaded in strong winds and thus likely to become unstable. Marine traffic situational awareness and visibility to other vessels will be facilitated by the AIS AQ610 base station. All Kongsberg equipment permits remote access and monitoring.