Scotland to create the world’s largest floating wind farm

The Scottish Government has just approved a plan to install the world’s largest offshore wind development off the coast of Peterhead. The installation will be the UK’s first.

“Floating wind represents a new, significant and increasingly competitive renewable energy source. Statoil’s objective with developing this pilot park is to demonstrate a commercial, utility-scale floating wind solution, to further increase the global market potential. We are proud to develop this unique project in Scotland, in a region that has optimal wind conditions, a strong supply chain within oil and gas and supportive public policies,” said Statoil’s executive vice president for New Energy Solutions Irene Rummelhoff.

The wind farm pilot park will include five floating 6-MW turbines that will be located approximately  15 miles off the coast of Peterhead. The farm will be able to generate  135 GWh of electricity each year. It is predicted that the Hywind Scotland development could power up to 19,900 houses.

Unlike conventional turbines, Hywind turbines will be attached to the seabed by a three-point mooring spread and anchoring system. The turbines will be connected by an inter-array of cables and an export cable will transport electricity from the pilot park to shore at Peterhead.

It is predicted that floating wind concepts like these have the ability to reduce generating costs to below $154/MWh in commercial deployments, with the leading concepts such as Hywind, with even lower costs.

“Hywind is a hugely exciting project – in terms of electricity generation and technology innovation – and it’s a real testament to our energy sector expertise and skilled workforce that Statoil chose Scotland for the world’s largest floating wind farm,” said Scotland’s Deputy First Minister John Swinney.

For more information visit Scotland.gov.