Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil announced that Hywind Scotland, world’s first floating wind farm, has started to deliver electricity to the Scottish grid. The 30MW wind farm will be operated by Statoil in partnership with Masdar.
The base for the onshore operations for Hywind Scotland will be in Peterhead and the operations center will be located in Great Yarmouth. Masdar will install Batwind, a 1MWh Lithium battery storage solution for offshore wind energy. The battery will have the storage to moderate intermittency and optimise output.
The new Hywind Scotland floating farm will have the capability of being used in water depths up to 800 metres. This will result in new possibilities that were inaccessible so far for the offshore wind.
Irene Rummelhoff, executive Vice President of the New Energy Solutions business area in Statoil, noted: “The learnings from Hywind Scotland will pave the way for new global market opportunities for floating offshore wind energy. Through their government’s support to develop the Hywind Scotland project, the UK and Scotland are now at the forefront of the development of this exciting new technology.”
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, the company suggested.
