Norwegian energy company Statoil has made the final investment decision to build the Hywind Scotland Pilot Park, the world’s first floating wind farm, offshore Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, after Scotland gave the project the go-ahead yesterday.
The decision triggers investments of around NOK 2 billion (EUR 214 million), realizing a 60-70 percent cost reduction per MW from the Hywind demo project in Norway, Statoil said in a statement.
Statoil will install a 30 MW wind turbine farm on floating structures at Buchan Deep, 25 km offshore Peterhead, harnessing Scottish wind resources to provide renewable energy to the mainland. The wind farm is projected to power around 20,000 households, and the production start is expected in late 2017.
“Statoil is proud to develop the world’s first floating wind farm. Our objective with the Hywind pilot park is to demonstrate the feasibility of future commercial, utility-scale floating wind farms. This will further increase the global market potential for offshore wind energy, contributing to realising our ambition of profitable growth in renewable energy and other low-carbon solutions,” says Irene Rummelhoff, Statoil’s executive vice president for New Energy Solutions.
The pilot park will cover around 4 square kilometres, at a water depth of 95-120 metres. The average wind speed in this area of the North Sea is around 10 metres per second, according to Statoil.
“The momentum is building around the potential for floating offshore wind technology to unlock deeper water sites. The ability to leverage existing infrastructure and supply chain capabilities from the offshore oil and gas industry create the ideal conditions to position Scotland as a world leader in floating wind technology,” Scotland’s Deputy First Minister John Swinney said.
Statoil has worked with several Scottish suppliers and partners on the project. The onshore operation and maintenance base will be located in Peterhead, also drawing on resources from Statoil’s existing office in Aberdeen.
Hywind is an offshore wind technology developed and owned by Statoil. The concept has been verified through six years of successful operation of a prototype installed off the island of Karmøy in Norway.