Equinor’s Hywind Tampen wind farm was opened overnight by Crown Prince Haakon of Norway. The Australian Ambassador to Norway, Kerin Ayyalaraju, was also present at the opening.
Hywind Tampen is now powering the Gullfaks and Snorre oil and gas platforms in the North Sea, the first in the world to receive power from offshore wind, and is expected to cover about 35 per cent of the annual need for electricity on the five platforms, reducing CO2 emissions.
The largest floating offshore wind farm in the world is located about 140 kilometres from shore, in water depth between 260 and 300 metres, consisting of 11 wind turbines based on the Hywind concept, developed by Equinor, with a system capacity of 88 MW.
From the left to right: Kjetil Hove, Executive Vice President Norwegian Continental Shelf, Equinor, His Royal Highness Crown Prince Håkon, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Siri Espedal Kindem, Senior Vice President Renewables Norway, Equinor.
In Australia, Equinor has partnered with Oceanex to pursue floating offshore wind opportunities in New South Wales, including the Novocastrian Offshore Wind Farm in the Hunter. Equinor has also partnered with Nexsphere to progress the Bass Offshore Wind Energy project in the Bass Strait, Tasmania.
Thomas Hansen, Senior Director for Offshore Wind in Australia, Equinor says, “As the world’s largest floating offshore wind farm, Hywind Tampen is making a significant contribution to further developing the technology at scale and reducing the future cost of floating offshore wind in a growing global market, including Australia.”
“Hywind Tampen was completed in five years, with 60 percent of the contract values in the project 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. Equinor is bringing this experience to Australia, as we mature floating offshore wind projects in NSW with our local partner,” Hansen said.
With Hywind Tampen now operational, Equinor is now operating nearly half of the world’s offshore floating wind capacity.
More information on Hywind Tampen can be found here: www.equinor.com/energy/hywind-
About Equinor
Equinor is a broad energy company building a material position in renewable energy. The company, headquartered in Norway, is developing offshore wind clusters in the UK, the US Northeast and in the Baltic Sea and is positioned for future wind options in several geographies, including the Asia & Pacific regions where it is developing a pipeline of floating offshore wind projects in South Korea.
Equinor is the world’s leading floating offshore wind developer and operator, operating the world’s first floating wind farm, Hywind Scotland (30MW) and the world’s largest floating offshore wind farm Hywind Tampen (88 MW) off the coast of Norway, which began operations in 2022 and will be fully operational by the end of the year. For more information visit: www.equinor.com
