The Hywind Tampen floating wind farm in the North Sea. Photo: Karoline Rivero Bernacki / Equinor ASA
Norwegian energy company Equinor says it has started power production at the Hywind Tampen floating wind farm in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.
Hywind Tampen is the first floating wind farm in Norway and will be the largest floating offshore wind farm in the world when completed in 2023.
Production began on Sunday, November 13, with power delivery to the Gullfaks A platform. The 88 megawatt (MW) capacity Hywind Tampen wind farm is expected to meet about 35 percent of the electricity demand of the two fields, reducing CO2 emissions from the fields by about 200,000 tonnes per year.
“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.
Seven of eleven total turbines for the Hywind Tampen project are scheduled to start operations this year. The last four turbines have been assembled and will be installed on the field during a weather window next year. But even with just seven turbines, 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. 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,” says Kjetil Hove, Equinor’s executive vice president for Exploration and Production Norway.
Equinor also operates the 30 MW Hywind Scotland floating wind farm, which has been operation for five years.
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