The first floating wind farm in the world is up and running.
Hywind Scotland has started delivering electricity to the Scottish grid as per the 18th of October 2017.
The 30MW wind farm, is located 25 kilometers offshore Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, is operated by Statoil in partnership with Masdar, and will power approximately 20,000 households.
The onshore operations base is located in Peterhead, while the operations centre is located in Great Yarmouth.
Irene Rummelhoff, executive vice president of Statoil’s New Energy Solutions, said that Hywind can be used for water depths up to 800 metres, therefore opening up areas that have been inaccessible for offshore wind so far, adding that the learnings from the project will pave the way for new global market opportunities for floating offshore wind energy.
According to Rummelhoff, the UK and Scotland are now at the forefront of the development of this new technology.
“Statoil has an ambition to reduce the costs of energy from the Hywind floating wind farm to EUR 40-60 EUR/MWh by 2030. Knowing that up to 80% of the offshore wind resources are in deep waters (+60 metres) where traditional bottom fixed installations are not suitable, floating offshore wind is expected to play a significant role in the growth of offshore wind going forward,” Rummelhoff said.
Over the next decade, floating wind is expected to follow a cost reduction path similar to that of onshore and bottom-fixed offshore wind, making floating wind cost competitive with other renewable energy sources, according to Statoil.
Source: Offshorewind.biz
