Industry Leaders Debate future Opportunities in Floating Offshore Wind

London, UK - Industry bodies RenewableUK and Scottish Renewables held the UK’s first dedicated floating offshore wind conference, with a rallying cry for the sector to work together to build the next generation of floating offshore wind farms in UK waters, and to secure the lead in future export markets for this innovative technology.

The UK is home to the world’s only floating offshore wind farm, Statoil and Masdar’s Hywind Scotland, and it has one of the largest pipelines of floating offshore wind projects in the world. As … points out, if these projects are delivered successfully, the UK will have one-third of the world’s entire floating wind capacity.

The 30-megawatt (MW) Hywind Scotland wind farm, 25 kilometres off the coast of Peterhead, has the capacity to power 20,000 homes. Two further projects, Kincardine and Dounreay Tri, are being developed, adding 60MW by end of the decade, trebling our capacity to 90MW.

Speaking at the event, RenewableUK’s Chief Executive Hugh McNeal said “No one should be in any doubt about the size of that possibility, of the prize that we are discussing today, or the benefits it could bring to Scotland and to workers and business across the UK. Outside the UK, France, Japan and the USA are also looking at opportunities to develop floating wind.

Industry experts point to the opportunities for floating wind to follow the same cost reduction trajectory as fixed offshore wind. It can share in the technology advances made in the wider offshore wind sector. Cost savings from assembling turbines onshore before towing out to sea, and the use of lower cost vessels also offer cost reduction opportunities. Most importantly, using floating platforms means being able to position turbines further from shore in areas of greater wind resource.

Source: IWR Online, 17 Nov 2017