Partnering with WREN, questionnaires are sent to offshore wind energy developers around the world who are involved in environmental monitoring. This page provides contextual project information and highlights environmental monitoring, providing links to available data and reports. Content is updated annually.

Hywind Tampen

Description

Hywind Tampen is a pioneering floating wind farm situated in the Norwegian North Sea, off the coast of Norway. Hywind Tampen is the largest floating offshore wind farm and comprises 11 wind turbines, each upgraded from 8 MW to 8.6 MW, for an installed capacity of 88 MW. The project serves as a testing ground for innovations in floating wind technology, including the deployment of larger turbines, advanced installation techniques, simplified mooring systems, concrete substructures, and the integration of gas and wind power generation.

As the world’s first floating wind farm designed to supply electricity to offshore oil and gas installations, Hywind Tampen now delivers clean energy to Equinor’s Snorre and Gullfaks fields. The wind farm is expected to provide approximately 35% of the annual electricity demand for the Snorre A and B and Gullfaks A, B, and C platforms. 

Hywind Tampen is also the first official offshore wind project in Norway. Prior to its development, Norway had only two demonstration projects. Equinor installed a 2.5 MW demonstration unit named Hywind Demo off the coast of Karmoy in 2009 and then developed the 30 MW Hywind Scotland Pilot Park in 2017 to demonstrate the feasibility of commercial deployment of the Hywind floating turbine.

Watch Equinor’s Hywind Tampen A to Z video here.

Location

Hywind Tampen is located about 140 km off the Norwegian coast in the North Sea between the Snorre and Gullfaks platforms. The base of construction was located at Wergeland.

Project Timeline

  • August 2023: Construction completed
  • May 2023: Final turbine installed
  • November 2022: Power production started
  • July 2022: First turbine towed to site
  • October 2020: Construction started
  • October 2019: Final Investment Decision (FID)
  • March 2019: Environmental Impact Assessment approved
  • September 2018: Hearing on Proposals for Impact Assessment Programme

Licensing Information

In 2019, the offshore wind project received critical regulatory approvals from Norwegian governmental agencies, including an Environmental Impact Assessment approval from the Ministry of Petroleum in March. By October 2019, the Norwegian Ministry of the Environment approved the Plan for Development and Operation (PDO). The project subsequently secured Seabed Lease and Area Usage Permits from the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate in April 2020, completing a comprehensive regulatory review process.

Key Environmental Issues

The 2013 Management Plan for the North Sea and Skagerrak provided an overview of the ecosystems and biodiversity in the North Sea and Skagerrak, and a comprehensive assessment of the environmental condition in the area and an approach to its management. Hywind Tampen was located within the area covered by the plan and the subject-specific studies that were carried out as part of it were a key reference basis for the environmental impact assessment.

Equinor has also initiated several research activities to further increase the understanding of the potential environmental impacts offshore wind has on the marine ecosystem, including birds, marine mammals, fish, and benthic organisms.

Environmental Papers and Reports

Environmental Monitoring: Hywind Tampen

Searches description, design and methods, and results.
Phase Stressor & Receptor Design and Methods Results Publications Data
Baseline Birds Avian Monitoring with Cameras on Buoys
High-resolution cameras were mounted on a multi-sensor Fugro buoy, and Spoor's AI software was employed to detect and track bird activity in offshore environments, addressing challenges of dynamic movement and data accessibility. 		Complete
The pilot successfully provided substantial bird activity data, capturing a high volume of bird detections despite downtime due to environmental factors. The analysis revealed insights into bird interactions in offshore settings, which are critical for informing environmental assessments and planning for future wind farm developments. 		Spoor and Equinor 2023 No data publicly available.
Baseline Collision, Habitat Change

Birds 		Seabird Surveys
The study calculated seabird distribution using at-sea counts within the assessment area for Hywind Tampen, utilizing tracking data from SEATRACK to determine the population origin and foraging distribution of breeding seabirds. A sensitivity index for wind power was applied to assess collision risk and habitat disturbance. 		Complete
The assessment concluded that the proposed location of Hywind Tampen, with its distance from land and moderate number of turbines, will likely have limited impact on seabirds due to relatively low seabird density in the area. Mitigation measures suggest maintaining fewer larger turbines to minimize collision risks, with no basis for relocating the wind farm or reducing the number of turbines. 		Moe et al. 2018 No data publicly available.
Baseline Habitat Change, Noise

Birds, Fish, Marine Mammals 		Environmental Impact Assessment
This study assessed the impacts of connecting Hywind Tampen, a floating wind farm, to existing oil platforms, and evaluated emissions reductions, noise impact, reef effects, and consequences for fisheries through sound simulations, ecological surveys, and consideration of operational constraints for trawlers. 		Complete
Hywind Tampen is projected to reduce CO2 and NOx emissions significantly by replacing gas turbines with wind power. The noise and reef effects were considered negligible and small but positive respectively, with minimal direct impact on marine organisms and fisheries. The physical occupation of area by the wind farm will modestly affect bottom trawling, but overall impacts on fisheries are deemed minor. 		Equinor 2019 No data publicly available.
Baseline Habitat Change

Fish 		Fisheries Study
This study assessed the potential impacts on fisheries from the development and operation of the Hywind Tampen wind farm by analyzing historical fishing data patterns, particularly focusing on trawl and pelagic gear activities, proximity to planned infrastructure, and the implications of installation. 		Complete
The analysis determined limited impact on fisheries during both installation and operational phases of the wind farm, with minor operational disadvantages and catch losses for trawlers due to the non-fishable area around turbines and cables. Overall, fishing with gear other than bottom trawls is expected to continue without significant effects. 		Aaserød and Bjørgesæter 2018 No data publicly available.
Baseline Noise

Marine Mammals 		Acoustic Impact Assessment
This study used sound measurements from Hywind 1 and modeling tools to predict noise propagation around Hywind Tampen, assessing potential impacts on marine mammals by comparing sound pressure levels (SPL) and sound energy levels (SEL) with internationally accepted thresholds. 		Complete
Hywind Tampen's continuous noise was found to be below injury thresholds for marine mammals, with only the SEL threshold for temporary threshold shift (TTS) slightly exceeded within 45 meters for low-frequency cetaceans—a negligible risk as animals are unlikely to remain that close for 24 hours. The transient sounds were below injury criteria, leading to an overall evaluation of non-existent risk to marine mammals. 		Weissenberger 2019 No data publicly available.
Baseline Noise

Physical Environment 		Underwater Acoustic Monitoring
Conducted by Jasco Applied Sciences for Statoil, this continuous underwater acoustic recording program spanned 150 days and was completed in August 2011. The study recorded acoustic data at the Hywind test site and an adjacent control site to characterize underwater acoustic signatures of the wind turbine structure. 		Complete
The analysis revealed that ambient sound levels were generally elevated due to commercial shipping and seismic surveys. The HYWIND structure produced detectable acoustic signatures related to gear meshing and electrical generation, with occasional transients reaching peak levels over 160 dB linked to mooring tension releases. 		Martin et al. 2011 No data publicly available.
Operations Noise

Birds 		Avian Monitoring with CCTV Cameras on Turbines
This study employed CCTV cameras installed on floating wind turbines to monitor bird activity over a period of approximately nine months, utilizing Spoor's AI software to analyze recorded video footage for detection and tracking. 		Complete
The pilot successfully demonstrated the capability of CCTV cameras to gather significant bird activity data, with approximately 6,000 hours of video recorded. However, challenges included data loss during darker months due to insufficient light, resulting in an overall reduction in analyzable footage. The findings provided insights into bird interactions with offshore wind infrastructure, highlighting the potential for improved biodiversity monitoring. 		Spoor and Equinor 2024 No data publicly available.
Operations Habitat Change

Fish 		Environmental DNA (eDNA) Monitoring of Fish and Plankton Communities
eDNA surveys utilized MiFish-U and MiFish-E primer sets to characterize fish and plankton communities at various depths around the Hywind Tampen floating offshore wind farm (FOWF). Water samples were collected at three time points (T0, T1 +24h, T2 +7d) for metabarcoding and ddPCR analyses. 		Complete
The study identified 36 fish species, including previously undetected elasmobranchs, improving coverage of local fish communities. The eDNA analysis indicated negligible impacts on demersal fish community composition from the wind farm. Significant variations were observed in mackerel concentrations, while herring showed no notable changes. Overall, the findings suggest that the Hywind Tampen FOWF did not significantly impact the local pelagic ecosystem at the time of sampling, with recommendations for future monitoring of long-term effects. 		Hestetun et al. 2024, Hestetun et al. 2025 No data publicly available.
Operations Habitat Change

Fish, Invertebrates 		Glider Biomass Monitoring
Two autonomous surface gliders, Sailbuoys, were deployed to collect active acoustic data over a four-week period in May 2023, assessing the influence of the Hywind Tampen floating wind farm on pelagic fish and zooplankton by conducting transects in upstream and downstream areas. 		Complete
The study observed varied vertical behaviors and distributions of scattering features, such as zooplankton and fish, around the wind farm but found no systematic pattern or significant differences in biomass density or distribution between upstream and downstream areas, suggesting a negligible effect of the wind farm on pelagic fish and lower trophic levels. 		Priou et al. 2024 No data publicly available.
Operations Noise

Physical Environment 		Underwater Acoustic Monitoring
This study was conducted from February to June 2024. It utilized four recording systems (two omnidirectional and two directional) to analyze sound emissions from the operational turbines. Sound data were collected at various positions within and around the wind farm, focusing on dominant frequencies and correlations with turbine operational parameters such as rotor RPM and wind speed. 		Complete
The study identified that the dominant sound emissions from the Hywind Tampen turbines were narrowband tones primarily below 200 Hz, with significant correlations to wind speed and rotor RPM. Daily cumulative sound exposure levels remained below thresholds for hearing impacts. 		Welch et al. 2025 No data publicly available.
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