Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway, has inaugurated the 88 MW Hywind Tampen wind farm which will supply electricity to Equinor’s oil and gas fields Snorre and Gullfaks in the Norwegian North Sea, thereby reducing CO2 emissions by 200,000 tonnes annually.
The wind farm, managed from Equinor's Bergen location, consists of 11 wind turbines and is based on the floating Hywind concept. The project was completed in five years and is expected to cover about 35% of the annual need for electricity on five platforms – Snorre A and B and Gullfaks A, B, and C.
Norwegian suppliers have received 60% of the contract values in the project, which will support new activity, green jobs, local spin-offs, and technology development for future floating offshore wind projects in a growing industry.
The project received funds worth $90 million and $52.68 million from Enova and the Norwegian Business Sector's NoX, respectively, for technology development within offshore wind power and emission reductions.
The investment for the project is estimated to increase to about $690 million from an initial cost of $470 million due to a combination of COVID-related costs, delayed deliveries, quality issues with some deliveries, knock-on effects, increased market prices, currency effects, and supplier compensation for COVID-19 effects. Similarly, the expected CO2 tax and gas price have increased, creating a positive effect on the project economy.
