The Hywind Tampen wind farm has been offically opened by Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, creating the world's largest floating offshore wind farm.

The wind farm is expected to reduce CO2 emissions from oil and gas producers in the North Sea, which may seem a little odd, but carbon reduction is carbon reduction in any form.

The wind farm consists of 11 wind turbines based on the floating Hywind concept, developed by Equinor. The farm floats over a water depth of between 260 and 300 metres, with the turbines are mounted on floating concrete structures with a common anchoring system.

Hywind Tampen has a system capacity of 88MW 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.

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. In five years, the project has gone from the drawing board to completion and, adjusted for price developments since 2016/2017, the investment cost for Hywind Tampen is about 35 per cent lower per installed MW.

Picture credit: Ole Jørgen Bratland / Equinor.

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