OSLO (Reuters) – The Hywind Tampen floating offshore wind farm off the west coast of Norway, which will supply power to oil and gas fields and cut their emissions, started producing its first power on Sunday, Norwegian energy firm Equinor said on Monday.
The power was delivered to the Gullfaks A platform in the North Sea, the company said.
Hywind Tampen is expected to meet about 35% of the electricity demand of the Gullfaks and Snorre oil and gas fields once in full operation, cutting carbon emissions from the fields by about 200,000 tonnes per year, Equinor added.
Once completed, Hywind Tampen will consist of 11 turbines with a capacity of 88 megawatt (MW).
However, only seven turbines will be connected in the first round, with the last units delayed until next year by global supply chain bottlenecks, Equinor said previously.
“Even with just seven turbines on stream Hywind Tampen will be the world’s largest floating wind farm with a capacity of 60 MW,” Equinor said.
Equinor has already been operating a 30 MW offshore floating wind farm in Britain, Hywind Scotland, since 2017.
(Reporting by Nora Buli, editing by Terje Solsvik)
