The first of the 11 Siemens Gamesa 8.6 MW wind turbines that will make up Equinor’s Hywind Tampen floating wind farm has been installed at the construction site some 140 kilometres offshore the Norwegian coast.
The turbine had sailed away last week from the Wergeland’s base in Gulen in western Norway where it was assembled.
Four wind turbines have been fully assembled so far.
The turbines are mounted on concrete SPAR-type floating foundations and installed in water depths of between 260 and 300 metres.
Once commissioned by the end of 2022, the 94.6 MW Hywind Tampen will become the largest floating offshore wind farm in operation.
The electricity generated by the wind turbines will be used to power the Snorre and Gullfaks offshore oil & gas platforms off Norway, covering around 35 per cent of the annual power needs of the five platforms.
Besides being the largest floating wind farm in operation, Hywind Tampen will also be the first floating offshore wind farm to deliver electricity to oil and gas installations.
Equinor is developing and will operate the NOK 5 billion (EUR 488 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.