Equinor inaugurates giant floating wind asset in Norway

Equinor and its partners inaugurated the world’s largest floating offshore wind farm offshore Norway on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

The 88-MW Hywind Tampen consists of 11 wind turbines and is located around 140 kilometres offshore Norway’s west coast in water depths between 260 metres and 300 metres.

The asset utilises a floating concrete spar structure with a shared anchoring system. The turbines are linked to a 2.5-kilometre inter-array network with a capacity of 66 kV.

The development covers 35% of the annual power needs of two oil and gas platforms on the Snorre field and three oil and gas platforms on the Gullfaks field, all located in the North Sea.

Equinor is partnered with Petoro, OMV, Vår Energi, Wintershall Dea and INPEX Idemitsu Norge on the project.

The FID for the project was reached in October 2019, and the asset began producing power in Q2 2022.

According to the NOC, the project will lower carbon emissions of its oil and gas operations by around 20,000 tonnes per year.

Norway has set a goal to produce 30 GW through offshore wind assets by 2040.