Scotland lined up as potential site for first floating wind farm

Published on Friday 9 July 2010 16:37

NORWEGIAN oil giant Statoil is looking to Scotland to take ambitious plans to develop the world's first floating wind farm to the next stage.

The company has begun testing "Hywind" - the world's first full-scale floating wind turbine - eight miles off the south-west coast of Norway.

And it was revealed yesterday that Statoil has identified two potential sites off the Scottish coast - one in the west and one in the east - as the location for a larger demonstrator project of up to five floating turbines.

According to a briefing note obtained by The Scotsman, the two sites being examined by Statoil are off Fraserburgh in the north-east and the North Minch, off the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles.

Statoil, however, has strenuously refuted reports that the company is already planning to build two giant wind farms in the Minch, with 320 turbines over two sites covering 300 square kilometres.

Jannik Lindbk, a spokesman for the company, said: "Statoil is currently running a feasibility study where we evaluate the possibilities of deploying a demo park of three to five windmills somewhere off the coast of Scotland. We are evaluating several locations for this - off the Isle of Lewis being one of the places."

He added: "The deployment of such a demo park will be far off the coast, and the windmills will hardly be visible. We would make sure to have a have a good dialogue with all relevant stakeholders during the process when the location has been selected.

"Statoil has built the first full-scale prototype of a floating windmill, called Hywind. The prototype is anchored offshore Karmy in Norway, and delivers power to the grid. The demo park under consideration takes this concept one step further."

But Mr Lindbaek insisted that no decisions had been made. He said: "Wind parks based on floating structures are not commercially viable in today's market. We therefore need time and a step-by-step approach to commercialise the concept."

According to Statoil, the Hywind concept combines known technologies in a "completely new setting" and opens up the possibility for capturing wind energy in deep-water environments.

The Hywind structure consists of a steel cylinder filled with a ballast of water and rocks. It extends 100 metres beneath the sea's surface and is attached to the seabed by a three-point mooring spread.

A subsea power line is being used to connect the wind turbine to the grid. But a spokesman said: "The primary intention is not to derive revenues from the power generated by Hywind, but to test how wind and waves affect the structure.

"Once these answers have been obtained, Statoil can work on commercialising the concept. The goal is to reduce costs so that floating wind power can compete in the energy market.

The core expertise acquired by Statoil as a leading operator of offshore oil and gas fields has played a very important part in the development of the Hywind concept."

It was announced last year that the world's largest wave farm is to be built off Lewis as part of Scotland's drive to become a world leader in renewables. The 4MW Siadar Wave Energy Project, which is to be constructed 400m offshore, will provide enough electricity to power about 1,800 homes.

The 30 million scheme, which is being developed by Npower Renewables and Wavegen, is due to be completed by 2011. It will be the first commercial-scale wave farm in Scotland and would be larger than the Pelamis scheme off Portugal - the only other similar project.

In January, the Scottish Government gave the go-ahead for the first large-scale wind farm on the Western Isles - a 33-turbine, 118MW scheme at Muaitheabhal, on Lewis, proposed by developer Nick Oppenheim on his Eisgen Estate. The 120m Lewis project will be able to provide green electricity for 55,000 homes and will create about 150 construction jobs.

The islands' council has been promoting the area's potential for wind farm for many years, but plans for a 500m, 181-turbine development on Lewis were turned down in April 2008 by Scottish ministers, who decided the plan did not comply with European law on peatland wildlife habitats.z