Hywind Tampen, the world’s largest and Norway’s first floating offshore wind farm, powered up yesterday for the first time.

World’s largest offshore floating wind farm

Norwegian power giant Equinor has developed and will operate Hywind Tampen, which consists of 11 8.6 megawatt (MW) turbines. It’s located around 140 km (87 miles) off the Norwegian coast in a water depth of between 260 and 300 meters (853 to 984 feet).

Seven of the wind farm’s turbines are scheduled to come online this year. The last four turbines were assembled this autumn and will be installed in 2023, when weather allows. 

It will also be the world’s first floating wind farm to power offshore oil and gas platforms.

The 94.6 MW, €488 million ($522 million) project will provide electricity for the Snorre and Gullfaks oil and gas fields in the Norwegian North Sea. It’s expected to meet around 35% of the five platforms’ annual power needs.

Equinor asserts that Hywind Tampen will reduce the need for locally produced gas power and “thus reduce annual emissions from the fields by about 200,000 tonnes of CO2, which is equivalent to emissions from 100,000 vehicles.”

Norway is the world leader in electric cars per capita. It’s planning planning 30 GW of offshore wind by 2040. But the Scandinavian country is also Western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer. The petroleum sector makes up around 40% of Norway’s exports and 14% of its gross domestic product.

The Norwegian government says it will work to cut the country’s net emissions by 55% by 2030 from 1990 levels. That’s aligned with EU targets. But unlike its EU neighbors, Norway says its move to clean energy will be gradual and that it has no intention of giving up oil and gas exploration.

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