The substructures for Norway’s Hywind Tampen floating wind project have departed Stord, where they were built, and are underway to a deepwater site at Dommersnes, where concrete slipforming of the spar substructures for the foundations will be completed
Construction of the spar substructures will be the first concrete slipforming project for an offshore project on the Norwegian continental shelf since the Troll A platform was delivered in 1995.
A total of 11 substructures left Aker Solutions’ yard at Stord earlier this week. The first 20 m of the structures for the floating foundations were built at Stord. Once at Dommersnes, slipforming work will extend their length to 107.5 m.
Hywind Tampen will be an 88-MW floating wind project and is intended to provide electricity for the Snorre and Gullfaks offshore field operations in the Norwegian North Sea. It will be the world’s largest floating offshore windfarm and the first to provide power to offshore oil and gas platforms. It is also the first floating wind project in which Equinor has used concrete to form the foundations for floating wind turbines.
Equinor project director Olav-Bernt Haga said, “The project represents a direct transfer of technology from oil and gas to renewables. The giant Troll A substructure was 369 m in length. Now we are building 11 small Trolls and the project is on schedule despite the challenges created by Covid-19.”
While the structures are being built at Dommersnes, anchors for the windfarm are being welded together at Aker Solutions in Verdal. The nacelles, blades and turbine towers will be produced in Europe and shipped to the Wergelands base in Gulen. The substructures will be towed to Gulen when the slipforming and mechanical work is completed at Dommersnes.
In 2022, all of the structures will be brought together in Gulen and assembly work will start.
“We plan to start towing the completed wind turbines to Tampen in Q2 2022 and complete offshore work by the end of the year,” said Mr Haga.
© 2023 Riviera Maritime Media Ltd.