World's First Floating Wind Farm Will Be Near Scotland

While Morocco busies itself with building the largest concentrated solar farm in the world, Scotland is focusing on a similar record of its own — the world's first ever floating wind farm will be located off the Scottish shores, using ocean winds to generate power for those in the nation. The wind farm will be located 25 kilometer offshore, with production being slated to start in 2017.

The announcement was made this month by Statoil, which says it has made its final investment decision to build the wind farm. The project aims for a 30MW wind turbine farm that will be built atop floating structures of some sort; they'll be located at Buchan Deep. Once operational, it is anticipated the wind farm will power about 20,000 homes.

The company calls this a pilot park, hinting that more may follow in due time. The park in total will span 4 square kilometers, and will be positioned where average wind speed sits at about 10 meters per second. In addition to providing clean energy, the park is also anticipated to rev up innovation, as well as jobs.

Statoil says it will be working with some Scottish suppliers and other partners during the build. Operations will be based out of Peterhead, as well as the company's Aberdeen office. Said the company's executive VP for New Energy Solutions, Irene Rummelhoff, "Our objective with the Hywind pilot park is to demonstrate the feasibility of future commercial, utility-scale floating wind farms."

SOURCE: Statoli