Norway Approves Floating Wind Farm to Power Equinor Oil and Gas Platforms

Norway has approved Equinor’s plans to develop and operate a floating wind farm that will provide power to five oil and gas platforms in the Norwegian North Sea.

The Hywind Tampen wind farm will consist of eleven 8MW floating wind turbines to provide approximately 35 percent of the annual power demand of Equinor’s Snorre and Gullfaks platforms, making them the first in the world to receive power from a floating offshore wind farm.

The wind farm will be located around 140km off Norway between the Snorre A and B and Gullfaks A, B and C platforms. Water depth in the area ranges from 260 to 300 meters. 

By utilizing wind power, Equinor says it expected to help reduce CO2 emissions by more than 200,000 tonnes per year, corresponding to annual emissions from 100,000 private cars. 

“Hywind Tampen is a pioneering project and a central contribution to reducing emissions from Gullfaks and Snorre, and I am pleased that both ESA and Norwegian authorities have approved the project. We are experiencing very challenging times, and we are focusing on continuing our transition effort while attending to and developing the value on the Norwegian continental shelf and at the same time reducing the climate footprint from our operations,” says Arne Sigve Nylund, Equinor’s executive vice president for Development & Production Norway.

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