World’s largest floating offshore wind farm delivers first power – to oil and gas platform

First power has been generated by the world’s largest floating offshore wind farm, the 88MW Hywind Tampen wind farm located in the Norwegian North Sea.

Norwegian energy company Equinor announced on Monday that power production from the first turbine at Hywind Tampen had been delivered to the Gullfaks A oil and gas platform.

Equinor, one of several companies involved in the Hywind Tampen project, is using power generated from the offshore wind farm to power operations at its Snorre and Gullfaks oil and gas fields in the Norwegian North Sea.

“I am proud that we have now started production at Hywind Tampen, Norway’s first and the world’s largest floating wind farm,” said Geir Tungesvik, Equinor’s executive vice president for projects, drilling, and procurement.

Unique project

“This is a unique project, the first wind farm in the world powering producing oil and gas installations.”

Hywind Tampen is owned by the Gullfaks and Snorre partners and, when construction is complete, will consist of 11 turbines with a total capacity of 88MW. The wind farm is expected to meet around 35% of the electricity demand of the two oil and gas fields, cutting CO2 emissions from the fields by around 200,000 tonnes per year.

The 11 turbines are being installed on concrete floats with a joint mooring system in water depths between 260 and 300 metres – well beyond that which traditional bottom fixed offshore wind turbines can currently manage.

Seven of the 11 turbines are expected to be operating by the end of the year, with the last four to be installed during an appropriate weather window next year. Siemens Gamesa was awarded the turbine supply contract back in late 2019.

World’s biggest

However, even with only seven turbines operating, Hywind Tampen will still be the world’s largest floating wind farm by year’s end, boasting operational capacity of 60MW.

“Hywind Tampen cuts emissions from the oil and gas industry and increases the gas export to Europe,” said Kjetil Hove, Equinor’s executive vice president for Exploration and Production Norway.

“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.”