Equinor has contracted the Gulen Industrial Harbour in Norway to provide a turbine assembly site for the Hywind Tampen floating wind project.
The Gulen Industrial Harbour will provide onshore and inshore areas for storage, assembly and commissioning of all the components for the turbines, as well as necessary infrastructure and facilities in the project period.
According to Equinor, no work will begin before the project’s investment decision, which is expected to be made this year as licensees are currently maturing.
“Equinor on behalf of the partners, have awarded a contract to Wergeland Base in Gulen Industrial Harbour in Sogn og Fjordane based on assessments of i.a. topographic suitability, safety as well as technical and commercial conditions,” said Equinor’s Project Director Olav-Bernt Haga .
“This is a challenging project requiring optimal technical solutions and further cost reductions before the partners can make an investment decision.
Hywind Tampen could become the world’s first offshore wind farm directly connected to oil and gas platforms, as Equinor and its partners at Gullfaks and Snorre decided last year to explore the possibilities of supplying the five platforms at the oil and gas fields with floating wind power.
The project will feature 8MW turbines which will have a combined capacity of 88MW, and may meet about 35% of the annual power demand of the five Snorre A and B, and Gullfaks A, B and C platforms.