SGRE Lands World’s Largest Floating OWF

Spanish-based engineering company Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) said that the world’s largest floating wind power plant will be installed in Norway, equipped with 11 Siemens Gamesa SG 8.0-167 DD turbines.

Scheduled to be commissioned in late 2022, Hywind Tampen will be the first ever floating wind power plant to power offshore oil and gas platforms.

“We are pleased to have received the firm order from Equinor to be the supplier of this ground-breaking project. Thanks to our strong collaboration and joint focus on innovation, we are now at the forefront of developing this exciting technology and unlocking the vast potential for floating offshore wind power,” highlighted Andreas Nauen, CEO of the Siemens Gamesa Offshore Business Unit.

Hywind Tampen will have a total capacity of 88 MW and be located some 140 kilometers from shore in an area with water depths of 260-300 meters between the Snorre and Gullfaks oil and gas platforms. Specifically, this wind power plant will be capable of meeting about 35 percent of the annual power demand of the Snorre and Gullfaks platforms.

By reducing the use of gas turbines on the fields, the project helps cut CO2 emissions by more than 200,000 tons per year, equivalent to the annual emissions from 100,000 passenger cars.

The floating foundations in the Hywind Tampen project are ballast-stabilized and anchored to the seabed with mooring lines. With their lightweight nacelles, Siemens Gamesa large direct drive wind turbines are particularly suited for floating foundations.

The innovative partnership between Siemens Gamesa and Equinor dates back to 2009, when the world’s first full-scale floating wind turbine project, Hywind Demo, was successfully installed in Norway. This initiative was followed in 2017 by the 30 MW Hywind Scotland floating wind power plant, currently the world’s largest, installed at water depths between 90 and 120 meters.

Hywind Scotland is a hugely successful project which has world-class safety performance and the highest capacity factor of any offshore wind farm in the UK. The Hywind Tampen project continues this partnership, bringing industrial-scale floating wind a giant leap forward.

Offshore wind already has a strong foothold in Europe with close to 18.5 GW installed capacity, and global potential to reach more than 100 GW by 2030. Of this, floating offshore wind is estimated to constitute 10% of the market, potentially powering 12 million homes in 2030.