Statoil to build world’s first commercial floating wind farm in Scottish waters

• 14 years ago (2010-08-27)
• David Flin

Europe 1088 Renewables 776

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The Scottish Government has announced that it has accepted a proposal from Statoil, Norway’s largest energy company, to commercially test its Hywind floating wind turbines in deep water either off the coast of Lewis or Aberdeenshire.

Statoil has already constructed a full-scale 2.3 MW prototype Hywind wind turbine, anchored 10 km offshore at Karmøy in Norway, in waters up to 200 m deep. Statoil said that the floating wind turbine is suitable for water depths up to 700 m, and claims that the prototype is performing above expectations, and has been delivering power to the grid since September 2009. The next stage of the development project is likely to involve construction of 3-5 units to test the commercial viability of the concept.

Alex Salmond, First Minister in the Scottish Government, said that offshore wind power could result in £30 billion in investments and create up to 20,000 jobs. He added: “It is critical that we exploit every opportunity. A recent study suggests that harnessing just a third of our practical resource off our coast by 2050 would generate enough electricity to power Scotland seven times over.”