Hywind Tampen opens, claims world's largest floating wind farm title

Offshore staff

Crown Prince Haakon of Norway connects two cables to mark the official opening of the Hywind Tampen wind farm. To his left, Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Equinor’s vice president for Renewables in Norway, Siri Espedal Kindem. Opposite, Equinor’s executive vice president for the Norwegian continental shelf Kjetil Hove.

STAVANGER, Norway – The Hywind Tampen wind farm was opened today by Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, Equinor announced. Gullfaks and Snorre are the first oil and gas fields in the world to receive power from offshore wind, reducing CO₂ emissions.

The wind farm consists of 11 wind turbines based on the floating Hywind concept, developed by Equinor. Hywind Tampen has a system capacity of 88 MW and is expected to cover about 35% of the annual need for electricity on the Snorre A and B and Gullfaks A, B and C platforms. The wind farm is managed from Equinor's office location in Bergen.

The Hywind Tampen partners are Equinor, Petoro, OMV, Vår Energi, Wintershall Dea and INPEX Idemitsu.

In November 2022, power production started from the first turbine in the Hywind Tampen floating wind farm. The power was delivered to the Gullfaks A platform in the North Sea. Then in May of this year, Equinor began supplying power from the Hywind Tampen wind farm to oil production facilities at the offshore Snorre complex.

Kjetil Hove, executive vice president for the Norwegian Continental Shelf with Equinor said, "Hywind Tampen is expected to reduce CO2 emissions with 200,000 tonnes annually from key oil and gas producers in the North Sea. It is a bold investment in a pioneering project from the Gullfaks and Snorre partnerships and Enova. 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."

Investment forecast

In five years, Equinor boasts the project has gone from the drawing board to completion, and 60% 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 ($216.7 million) and NOK 566 million ($53.3 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 ($697.5 million). When the plan for development and operation was submitted, the development cost was estimated at about NOK 5 billion ($471.2 million). 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, which was the world’s first floating offshore wind farm. Adjusted for price developments since 2016/2017, the investment cost for Hywind Tampen is about 35% lower per installed MW.

08.23.2023