Norway’s floating wind farm, Hywind Tampen, began power production at the weekend.
The floating wind turbine, located nearly 144 kilometres (almost 90 miles) off the west coast, marks the first time wind power has been used at offshore oil and gas production sites to reduce reliance on generators.
Geir Tungesvik, Equinor’s executive vice president for Projects, Drilling and Procurement told Maritime Executive: “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."
The wind farm is expected to meet about 35% of the electricity demand of the two fields, and estimated to cut CO2 emissions by about 200 000 tonnes per year.
The fully completed floating wind farm will consist of 11 wind turbines upgraded from eight to 8.6 MW, installed on a floating concrete structure with a joint mooring system. The location is adjacent to the Gullfaks, a platform in the North Sea with a water depth between approximately 850 feet and nearly 1 000 feet.
Kjetil Hove, Equinor’s executive vice president for Exploration and Production Norway, said Hywind Tampen cut emissions from the oil and gas industry and increased gas exports 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,” Hove said.
Seven of the 11 turbines are scheduled to be operational before the end of the year. The last four have been assembled in Norway and will be towed to the site at a future date and installed during a period of improved weather in 2023.
Even with seven turbines on stream, Hywind Tampen will be the world’s largest floating wind farm, with a capacity of 60 MW.
