Norwegian energy giant Equinor said Monday that the first of 11 floating wind turbines that will make up its Hywind Tampen floating wind farm in the Norwegian North Sea, had reached the offshore location.
As Offshore Engineer reported last week, the turbine, towed by Skandi Iceman AHTS vessel had sailed away last Thursday from the Wergeland's base where it was assembled.
The 88MW Hywind Tampen will be the world’s largest floating offshore wind farm once completed later this year. It will serve as the power source for five of Equinor's offshore oil and gas platforms in the North Sea off Norway, Snorre A, and B, and Gullfaks A, B, and C. Norway approved Equinor's 4.8 billion Norwegian crowns plan to build the Hywind Tampen project back in April 2020.
Once they are all installed, the eleven 8 MW floating turbines will be able to meet about 35 percent of the annual power demand of the five platforms.
Wind Europe recently said that the floating offshore wind industry was developing rapidly, and could, only in Europe, jump from the currently installed 113 MW floating wind turbines to 330 MW in 2024, and possibly 10GW by 2030, based on ambitions and targets announced by Norway, France, Span, Greece, Portugal, Italy, Scotland, and Ireland.
