Inauguration of the world’s largest floating wind farm

The Hywind Tampen floating wind farm was officially inaugurated on Wednesday (23/08). The system consists of 11 turbines producing up to 8.6 megawatts each, making it the largest such farm in the world.

The system has been producing energy since the end of last year, but only now has it been officially inaugurated. It was led by Prince Haakon of Norway and Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store. The turbines located in the North Sea (approx. 140 kilometers from the coast) are expected to cover over 1/3 of the energy needs of five neighboring oil and gas platforms.

Specificity of floating wind farms

Due to the fact that floating turbines are not anchored directly to the seabed, such farms can be built in deeper waters and farther from the coast, where the winds are more stable and stronger.

Unfortunately, such solutions are more expensive to build. The construction of Hywind Tampen , at a depth of 260 to 300 meters, cost approximately US$691 million .

The project is owned by the Norwegian state oil groups Equinor and Petoro, Austria’s OMV, a Norwegian subsidiary of Italy’s Eni called Var Energi, Germany’s Wintershall DEA and Japan’s Inpex.

The largest floating wind farm and energy purposes

Last year, the Norwegian government presented plans to develop offshore wind energy production until 2040. The goal of the Kingdom of Norway is to become independent from oil and gas as quickly as possible .

Norway aims to reach 30 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2040. This is twice the value as of 2022. The largest floating wind farm is intended to be a step towards achieving the goal. Currently, most renewable sources in Norway are hydroelectric power plants. They constitute as much as 45% of the energy mix.