Hywind Scotland, the first floating wind farm in the world, has started to deliver electricity to the Scottish grid.
The offshore wind farm was officially opened by the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, on 18 October. Statoil installed the 30 MW wind farm off the North East coast of Scotland. It comprises 5 6 MW Siemens turbines installed on floating structures at Buchan Deep, 25 km off Peterhead. Hywind Scotland is expected to power around 20,000 households.
'Hywind can be used for water depths up to 800 m, 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,' says Irene Rummelhoff, Executive Vice President of the New Energy Solutions business area in Statoil.
Cost Reductions
In recent years, there have been significant cost reductions in both the onshore and bottom fixed offshore wind sectors. Floating wind is expected to follow a similar downward trajectory over the next decade, making it cost competitive with other renewable energy sources.
'Statoil has an ambition to reduce the costs of energy from the Hywind floating wind farm to 40-60 €/MWh by 2030. Knowing that up to 80% of the offshore wind resources are in deep waters (+60 m), 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,' states Rummelhoff.
Hywind Project
The Hywind project is a pilot project that covers around 4 km2, at a sea depth of 95-129 m. The floating turbines have an overall height of 253 m. The rotor diameter is 154 m. This is only the first step of the project with the end goal being to develop a large-scale floating offshore wind park of 500-1000 MW.
Floating Structure
The floating structure consists of a steel cylinder filled with ballast water and rock or iron ore. An updated design has been made based on the experience from the demonstrator prototype. The new design has a design draft of 85-90 m and a displacement of around 12,000 tonnes. The diameter at the water line is about 9-10 m, while the diameter of the submerged section of the buoy is 14-15 m.
The structure is moored to the seabed using a conventional 3-line mooring system. Anchor types are determined by seabed conditions, and in the case of Hywind Scotland, suction anchors are used.
Watch a video about Hywind Scotland below.
Picture: Hywind Scotland 5 turbines at Buchan Deep August 2017 (by Øyvind Gravås/Woldcam/Statoil).
