Norway is marking the opening of the world’s largest floating offshore wind farm, which will be used to power offshore oil and gas fields in the North Sea.
Floating offshore wind is a promising technology that can help boost renewable offshore wind production, since wind farms can be developed in deeper waters, closer to where power is needed and where winds are more favorable for energy production. However, the technology is relatively novel. Despite a growing backlog of projects, only about 120 megawatts (MW) of floating offshore wind power generation was in operation worldwide at the end of 2022.
Floating Wind Farms Gain Traction But Can They Set Sail?
The Hywind Tampen wind farm consists of 11 wind turbines with a combined capacity of 88 megawatts (MW), enough to cover about 35% of the electricity needs of the Gullfaks and Snorre oil and gas fields. The fields become the first oil and gas fields in the world to receive power from offshore wind.
“Hywind Tampen is expected to reduce CO2 emissions with 200,000 tonnes annually from key oil and gas producers in the North Sea,” says Kjetil Hove, executive vice president for the Norwegian continental shelf in Equinor.
The turbines are installed on floating concrete spar structures with a shared anchoring system in water depths between 260 and 300 meters.
Power produced by Hywind Tampen will be used to supplement power at five platforms, namely Snorre A and B and Gullfaks A, B and C. The wind farm will be managed from Equinor’s office location in Bergen.
“40 years ago, Gullfaks was Equinor’s major qualifying test in field development on the Norwegian continental shelf. Today marks a new milestone,” says Siri Kindem, head of Equinor’s renewables business in Norway. “With Hywind Tampen, we have shown that we can plan, build and commission a large, floating offshore wind farm in the North Sea. We will use the experience and learning from this project to become even better. We will build bigger, reduce costs and build a new industry on the shoulders of the oil and gas industry.”
Over the course of development, the investment forecast for the project has increased to NOK 7.4 billion, from NOK 5 billion initially, due to COVID-related costs, delayed deliveries, quality issues, market prices, currency effects, and supplier compensation. However, the project economy benefits from an expected CO2 tax and gas price increase.
Compared to the world’s first floating offshore wind farm, Hywind Scotland, the Hywind Tampen project has significant cost improvements with an investment cost about 35 percent lower per installed MW, when adjusted for price developments since 2016/2017.
Enova and the Norwegian Business Sector’s NoX fund have provided NOK 2.3 billion and NOK 566 million respectively to support technology development in offshore wind power and emissions reduction.
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