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Statoil Hywind wind farm off Scotland gets og-ahead from UK Crown Estate
28.11.13The UK’s Crown Estate has granted a lease to Norway’s Statoil to move ahead with Europe’s largest floating wind scheme – the 30MW Buchan Deep project located 20km to 30km off the coast of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire.
The project, which will be the UK’s first floating wind farm, will comprise five 6MW floating turbines operating in water depths exceeding 100 metres. The Crown Estate and Statoil have been working closely over the past two years to progress the project, which will further enhance the UK's position as a global leader in offshore wind. Statoil is now working to secure the necessary consents from the Scottish government.
The next-generation Hywind 2, a cylindrical concept ballasted with water and gravel to balance in depths of more than 200m secured by a three-point mooring spread, has been fine tuned with its hull’s draft trimmed to a more compact, lighter “site-optimised” design that stretches 76 metres below the surface. Increasing the turbine size while decreasing the draft is designed to make the Hywind 2 more cost-efficient than the Norwegian demonstration unit.
“This is a significant milestone for the Hywind Scotland Pilot Park. It represents a new step in the development towards a future floating commercial scale park. We will continue to mature the Hywind Scotland Pilot Park towards a final investment decision, by conducting marine surveys and concept studies in order to demonstrate technical and commercial feasibility for future offshore floating wind,” says Siri Espedal Kindem, Statoil's senior vice president for renewable energy.
Source: Recharge
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