World’s First Floating Wind Farm Begins Operations

By Editors of Power Engineering

THE WORLD’S first floating offshore wind facility has officially begun production.

The 30-MW Hywind Scotland farm, built 25 kilometers from Peterhead, is now delivering power to the Scottish electrical grid, Statoil reported.

“Hywind can be used for water depths up to 800 meters, thus opening up areas that so far have been inaccessible for offshore wind,” said Irene Rummelhoff, executive vice president of the New Energy Solutions business area in Statoil. “The learnings from Hywind Scotland will pave the way for new global market opportunities for floating offshore wind energy.”

Additionally, Statoil and partner Masdar plan to install a 1 MWh lithium battery storage unit to Hywind Scotland.

The company believes the costs of establishing floating offshore wind will fall significantly over the next decade.

“Statoil has an ambition to reduce the costs of energy from the Hywind floating wind farm to € 40-60 €/MWh by 2030, said Rummelhoff. “Knowing that up to 80 percent of the offshore wind resources are in deep waters 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.”