Unitech Zefyros

Unitech Zefyros (originally commissioned and operated as Hywind Demo) is the world’s first full‑scale floating offshore wind turbine, installed in 2009 off Karmøy on Norway’s west coast. The single‑unit demonstration has been operated continuously as a small grid‑connected test asset and has served as a practical testbed for floating‑wind technology, subsea electrical systems and operations strategies. Built and commissioned by Statoil/Equinor, the platform was designed to validate MW‑scale floating concepts and to derisk components and control strategies needed for later commercial projects. Following a long operational life under Equinor, the demonstrator was sold in 2019 and renamed Unitech Zefyros; under UNITECH/Zephyros stewardship the platform has been repurposed as an R&D and training facility inside the Marine Energy Test Centre (METCentre) at Karmøy. The asset has been used to connect and export power from subsequent demonstrators (the TetraSpar Demonstrator, for example, exports power via Zefyros’s export cable), to trial innovations such as a helicopter deck, and to provide long‑duration operational datasets for floating‑wind performance, mooring behaviour and dynamic export cables. Its strategic value lies in providing a long‑running, grid‑connected reference platform for industry validation rather than in generating material commercial output. Throughout its life the project has been described in sources as an operational demonstration and a technology hub rather than a conventional commercial wind farm.