First Floating Wind Farm Starts Production in Scotland
Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, officially opened the 30MW farm, which Statoil operates in partnership with Masdar. The farm is located 25 kilometers offshore Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
The world's first floating wind farm, named Hywind Scotland, has begun delivering electricity to the Scottish grid, the Norwegian energy company Statoil reported Oct. 18, saying Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, officially opened the 30MW farm, which Statoil operates in partnership with Masdar. The farm is located 25 kilometers offshore Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
"Hywind can be used for water depths up to 800 meters, thus opening up areas that so far have been inaccessible for offshore wind. The learnings from Hywind Scotland will pave the way for new global market opportunities for floating offshore wind energy. Through their government's support to develop the Hywind Scotland project, the UK and Scotland are now at the forefront of the development of this exciting new technology. Statoil looks forward to exploring the next steps for floating offshore wind," said Irene Rummelhoff, executive vice president of the New Energy Solutions business area at Statoil.
Sturgeon said the farm "will provide clean energy to over 20,000 homes and will help us meet our ambitious climate change targets. This marks an exciting development for renewable energy in Scotland," she added. "Our support for floating offshore wind is testament to this government's commitment to the development of this technology and, coupled with Statoil's Battery Storage Project, Batwind, puts us at the forefront of this global race and positions Scotland as a world center for energy innovation."
The onshore operations and maintenance base for Hywind Scotland is located in Peterhead and its operations center is located in Great Yarmouth. Linked to the Hywind Scotland project will be Batwind, a 1MWh lithium battery storage solution for offshore wind energy that the partners will install.
Mohamed Al Ramahi, CEO of Masdar, pointed to upcoming opportunities. "Masdar has a long-standing commitment to renewable energy in the United Kingdom, and we are immensely proud to deliver our first project in Scotland alongside our partners," he said. "Hywind Scotland is showing that floating wind technology can be commercially viable wherever sea depths are too great for conventional fixed offshore wind power. This opens up a number of new geographies, and we are already looking at future opportunities with our partners, building on our existing international portfolio in onshore and offshore wind energy and solar power."