Equinor inaugurates 88-MW Hywind Tampen floating wind farm

Hywind Tampen, the world's largest floating offshore wind farm with a capacity of 88 MW, has been officially inaugurated today.

Developed by Norwegian energy group Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR), the 11-turbine wind farm was opened by Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Store.

The wind park is located in the Norwegian North Sea, about 140 kilometres (87 miles) from the shore and at a water depth of between 260 and 300 metres. It will provide electricity to the Gullfaks and Snorre oil and gas fields, covering about 35% of the annual power needs on the five platforms there. Gullfaks and Snorre, thus, become the first oil and gas fields globally to cut their emissions via the use of offshore wind power.

The cost estimate for the project has escalated to about NOK 7.4 billion (USD 699m/EUR 642m) from about NOK 5 billion at the point of submitting the plan for development and operation, Equinor said. The reasons include COVID-related costs, delayed deliveries and quality issues with some deliveries.

The project is an investment of Equinor and its partners in the Gullfaks and Snorre fields. State-run enterprise Enova and the Norwegian Business Sector's NoX contributed NOK 2.3 billion and NOK 566 million, respectively.

“The project has given us and the supplier industry valuable experience that will be important when we work together to develop offshore wind further in Norway and globally, scaling up for the future," said Kjetil Hove, executive vice president for the Norwegian continental shelf in Equinor.

The wind park, which produced first power in 2022, is based on the floating Hywind concept, developed by Equinor. It follows the 30-MW Hywind Scotland pilot wind farm, which went live in 2017.

(NOK 1 = USD 0.095/EUR 0.087)

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