The world’s largest floating offshore wind farm officially opened
The Hywind Tampen wind farm was opened yesterday by Crown Prince Haakon of Norway. Gullfaks and Snorre are the first oil and gas platforms in the world to receive power from offshore wind, reducing CO2 emissions.
We are proud of being part of the Hywind Tampen pioneering project which is expected to reduce the CO2 emissions from the Snorre field with 125,000 tonnes annually. It will have a significant impact on the CO2 footprint of our operations and the project has given us valuable experience for future decarbonization projects. I would like to thank everyone who has contributed.
The wind farm consists of 11 wind turbines based on the Hywind concept, developed by Equinor. Hywind Tampen has a system capacity of 88 MW and is expected to cover about 35 per cent of the annual need for electricity on the five platforms Snorre A and B and Gullfaks A, B and C. The wind farm is managed from Equinor’s office location in Bergen.
In five years, the project has gone from drawing board to completion. 60 percent of the contract values in the project have been awarded to Norwegian suppliers. This has contributed to new activity, green jobs, local spin-offs and technology development for future floating offshore wind projects in a growing industry.
Enova and the Norwegian Business Sector’s NoX fund have supported the project with NOK 2.3 billion and NOK 566 million respectively to stimulate technology development within offshore wind power and emission reductions.
The investment forecast for the project is now about NOK 7.4 billion. When the plan for development and operation was submitted, the development cost was estimated at about NOK 5 billion. The increase is due to a combination of COVID-related costs, delayed deliveries, quality issues with some deliveries and knock-on effects. In addition, increased market prices, currency effects and supplier compensation for COVID-19 effects have contributed. At the same time, the expected CO2 tax and gas price have increased, which has a positive effect on the project economy.
The project has significant cost improvements compared to the Hywind Scotland floating offshore wind farm. Adjusted for price developments since 2016/2017, the investment cost for Hywind Tampen is about 35 percent lower per installed MW.
Facts about Hywind Tampen
- Partners: Equinor, Petoro, OMV, Vår Energi, Wintershall Dea and INPEX Idemitsu
- Hywind Tampen has a system capacity of 88 MW
- The wind farm is located about 140 kilometres from shore
- Water depth: between 260 and 300 metres
- Began power production in the third quarter of 2022 towards Gullfaks, in 2nd Quarter 2023 towards Snorre, and is fully operational as of August 2023.
- The turbines are mounted on floating concrete structures with a common anchoring system.
- Enova and the Norwegian Business Sector’s NoX fund have supported the project with NOK 2.3 billion and NOK 566 million respectively to stimulate technology development within offshore wind power and emission reductions.
- The Norwegian government has set an ambition to award acreage equivalent to 30 GW of offshore wind by 2040. Hywind Tampen is the first offshore wind farm in Norway, demonstrating the opportunities for renewable power production on the Norwegian continental shelf.
