The Hywind Tampen wind farm was opened today by Crown Prince Haakon of Norway. Gullfaks and Snorre are the first oil and gas platforms in the world to receive power from offshore wind, reducing CO2 emissions.

Hywind Tampen is expected to reduce CO2 emissions with 200,000 tonnes annually from key oil and gas producers in the North Sea. Vår Energi is one of the partners in the Snorre license.

Vår Energi CEO, Torger Rød:

“We are proud to be part of this historic and important pioneer project on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The Hywind Tampen project has given Norway valuable experience that will be important when we work together to develop offshore wind further in Norway and globally. The project also shows that Norwegian offshore industry can plan, build and commission a large, floating offshore wind farm”.

The wind farm consists of 11 wind turbines based on the Hywind concept, developed by Equinor. Hywind Tampen has a system capacity of 88 MW and is expected to cover about 35 per cent of the annual need for electricity on the five platforms Snorre A and B and Gullfaks A, B and C.

In five years, the project has gone from drawing board to completion. 60 percent of the contract values in the project have been 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.

Facts about Hywind Tampen

  • Partners: Equinor, Petoro, OMV, Vår Energi, Wintershall Dea and INPEX Idemitsu
  • Hywind Tampen has a system capacity of 88 MW
  • The wind farm is located about 140 kilometres from shore
  • Water depth: between 260 and 300 metres
  • Began power production in the third quarter of 2022 and is fully operational as of August 2023.
  • The turbines are mounted on floating concrete structures with a common anchoring system.
  • Enova and the Norwegian Business Sector’s NoX fund have supported the project with NOK 2.3 billion and NOK 566 million respectively to stimulate technology development within offshore wind power and emission reductions.
  • The Norwegian government has set an ambition to award acreage equivalent to 30 GW of offshore wind by 2040. Hywind Tampen is the first offshore wind farm in Norway, demonstrating the opportunities for renewable power production on the Norwegian continental shelf.