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The world’s first floating offshore wind farm, Hywind Scotland, went online in 2017 as a pilot project off the coast of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire.
On his fifth birthday, the technicians shared data about his activity and what they learned thanks to him.
The wind farm from 30 MW consists of five wind turbines floats and generates enough electricity to power the equivalent of 34,000 households in the UK.
Its maximum height, from the base to the turbine, is 253 meters, while the depth is 95-120 meters. It is anchored to the seabed via a substructure spar type.
Equinor, the Norwegian energy giant, together with its partner Masdar, has invested NOK 2 billion (~ €190 million) to build Hywind Scotland, equal to 60-70% of the expenditure required for the Hywind Demo project in Norway.
Hywind Scotland can boast an enviable result: every year, from 2017 to today, has been able to reach the average capacity factor (i.e. the sum of the total energy produced by the plant in a period of time divided by the energy it could have produced at full capacity) tallest of all UK offshore wind farms, demonstrating the potential of this technology.
Equinor says Hywind Scotland is the best performing offshore wind farm in the world, with a capacity factor of 54%, achieved in its five years of operation. For comparison, the Center for Sustainable Systems of the University of Michigan reported that offshore wind capacity factors “should reach the 51% by 2022 for new projects”.
The company has also developed a floating wind turbine motion controller, implemented at Hywind Scotland, in order to further increase the capacity factor of the wind farm.
William Munn, plant manager of Hywind Scotland at Equinor, told what the park has been able to teach up to now:
“Project management Hywind Scotland has over the past five years informed Equinor of some of the unique challenges associated with a floating wind farm and the rewards if we do it right. Due to its location and the severe weather conditions it encounters, Hywind Scotland is exposed to higher wind speeds compared to what we normally see in a fixed-bottom wind farm,e it also has to withstand large waves, while still producing energy with wave heights of 10 meters. These particular conditions have made unique operations and maintenance methods necessary, as a high performance crew transfer vessel (CTV) capable of continuing operations in above standard transfer conditions.”
The company proudly let it be known that in these five years of maintenance no accidents occurred at work.
Steinar Berge, head of flutter wind at Equinor, said: “Equinor is the world’s most experienced operator and developer of offshore wind technologies and is bringing the lessons learned from Hywind Scotland to new projects around the world”.
The Norwegian firm currently has several projects in the pipeline in various locations, including South Korea, Australia, France, Spain, California, the UK’s Celtic Sea and Norway.
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