Hywind Tampen from Equinor ASA - floating wind cuts offshore emissions

Reviewed: ad hoc news New Release & Launch desk. Edited and checked on 2026-06-23, 07:09. Details in the imprint.

Hywind Tampen from Equinor ASA rises out of the North Sea like a row of slender white giants, their blades humming quietly while rough waves slap against the floating foundations. On deck of Gullfaks A, engineers can feel the faint vibration of clean power arriving through the subsea cables.

Floating wind for oil platforms

Hywind Tampen is a floating offshore wind farm that supplies electricity directly to the Gullfaks and Snorre fields on the Norwegian continental shelf. According to Equinor, the project consists of 11 wind turbines with a combined capacity of 88 MW. The official Equinor project page

Unlike bottom-fixed wind farms, each turbine stands on a floating concrete structure anchored to the seabed in water depths of about 260 to 300 meters. This lets Equinor place the project roughly 140 kilometers offshore, where stronger and steadier winds are available.

How much CO2 Hywind Tampen saves

Equinor states that Hywind Tampen is designed to meet around 35 percent of the annual power demand of the Gullfaks and Snorre platforms, depending on wind conditions. This allows the operator to shut down parts of the gas-fired power generation on the platforms. An Equinor news release

The company estimates annual CO2 emissions cuts of about 200,000 tonnes and NOx reductions of around 1,000 tonnes when the wind farm operates as planned. For a single industrial project, that is a substantial contribution to Norway’s offshore decarbonisation efforts.

Why Equinor chose floating wind

Executive vice president Pål Eitrheim describes Hywind Tampen as an important learning arena for Equinor’s offshore wind ambitions, because floating technology opens up regions that are too deep for conventional foundations. The company also sees it as a way to cut emissions from existing oil and gas assets.

The design builds on earlier experience from the smaller Hywind Scotland project, but scales it up and ties the turbines into a complex offshore power system. That system must constantly balance variable wind output with the platforms’ steady electricity demand.

Technical details investors watch

Each turbine on Hywind Tampen uses an 8 MW class machine from the Siemens Gamesa offshore portfolio, adapted for floating use. The concrete spar foundations are assembled in a Norwegian fjord and then towed upright to the field, a process that looks almost surreal on drone images. A Siemens Gamesa project feature

The turbines are connected by array cables to a subsea hub before the power runs to the platforms. That configuration reduces the footprint on the seabed and allows Equinor to adjust how much wind power each platform receives as operating conditions change.

What everyday operations look like

For operators on Gullfaks and Snorre, Hywind Tampen mainly shows up as a new line in the control room interface. A small green bar grows as the wind picks up, and gas turbines throttle back, making the room noticeably quieter when the wind farm is at high output.

Maintenance crews travel by service vessel to the turbines, climbing ladder systems that sway slightly with the swell. Technicians have described the movement as comparable to a slow elevator drift, noticeable but manageable with proper training and safety procedures.

Costs and public funding

Hywind Tampen has a total investment frame of around NOK 7.4 billion, according to Equinor’s latest figures, after cost increases driven by pandemic effects and supply chain pressures. The project also receives support from Norway’s Enova and the NOx Fund as a climate measure.

For investors, that mix of private capital and public funding illustrates how early floating wind projects still need policy support, while also laying the groundwork for cost reductions as the technology scales.

What it means for Equinor shares

Equinor positions Hywind Tampen as a flagship in its renewables portfolio, next to bottom-fixed projects such as Dogger Bank. For holders of Equinor shares, the project showcases how existing offshore competence in harsh environments can be monetised beyond traditional oil and gas. On the Oslo Stock Exchange, Equinor shares (ISIN NO0010096985) trade under the ticker EQNR in Norwegian kroner.

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