Offshore construction on the 88 MW Hywind Tampen floating wind farm is set to start next week with the transport and installation of the suction anchors at the site located about 140 kilometres off the Norwegian coast, DOF Subsea said.
The subsea AHTS vessel Skandi Skansen and the DOF Subsea team are currently preparing to undertake the installation work ahead of the tow of the completed wind turbines to the site.
Hywind Tampen will comprise 11 Siemens Gamesa 8 MW wind turbines installed on concrete SPAR-type floating foundations in water depths of between 260 and 300 metres.
Once commissioned by the end of 2022, Hywind Tampen will become the first floating offshore wind project to supply renewable power for oil and gas installations.
The wind farm is expected to cover about 35 per cent of the annual power needs on the Snorre A and B and Gullfaks A, B and C oil and gas platforms.
Apart from Siemens Gamesa, the project’s main suppliers and service providers include Aker Solutions (formerly Kværner), the company in charge of delivering the turbine foundations, JDR Cable System, Subsea 7, and Wood group.
JDR Cable System is in charge of supplying the electric cables for the project from its factory in Hartlepool, the UK.
Subsea 7 AS will install the cables and the connection to the Snorre and Gullfaks platforms, and Wood group will be responsible for modifications on the two oil and gas platforms.
Equinor is developing and will operate the NOK 5 billion (EUR 459 million) wind farm on behalf of the partnerships which include Equinor Energy AS, Petoro AS, and OMV (Norge) AS for the Gulflaks license, and Equinor Energy AS, Petoro AS, Idemitsu Petroleum Norge AS, Wintershall Dea Norge AS, and Vår Energi AS for the Snorre license.