Worlds first floating Windfarm started operations

Scotland inaugurated the world’s first floating turbine wind farm on 10/18/17. The project, called Hywind, was built by Statoil, a Norwegian oil company and Masdar Abu Dhabi Future Energy, with a construction cost of approximately 200 million pounds. The park has a capacity of 30MW and involves 5 floating turbines of 180 meters of height and 11 thousand tons each, located to 25 kilometers of the coast of Peterhead, area of ​​the North Sea where the winds are practically constant to 10m / s.

The park was praised by entities linked to the preservation of the environment. Gina Hanrahan, a representative of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Scotland, points out that such a clean energy proposal is applauded mainly because it is unprecedented in the world:

“Scotland has a quarter of the wind resources from all over Europe on its coast. So it’s great to see the world’s first floating wind farm opened here. Demonstrating the commercial viability this type of project has, Scotland can help in the development of this technology. In addition, it will move toward the goal of transforming all the energy used in the country into renewable sources by 2030. ”

The expectation of this pilot park is that the floating turbines open the sector to new markets, such as Japan and the Mediterranean, places where the ocean floor presents abrupt drops with respect to the coast. Irene Rummelhoff, executive vice president of Statoil’s New Energy Solutions business, says the Hywind can be used for water depths of up to 800 meters, thus opening up inaccessible areas for offshore wind farms.

WINDWERK, with solid experience in monitoring, inspections and auditing of wind turbines, praises the promising project and points out that there are points that must constantly focus on its success. Offshore turbines exhibit higher wear exposure due to salinity conditions and strong winds. In addition, maintenance is more complex than onshore parks, given the logistics for access to the turbines. For the Hywind project, with an even greater distance from the coast, this attention needs to be increased by the O&M team, requiring constant monitoring of turbine operational data.

Contact our team to answer your questions about the subject and to know how we can contribute to the solution of the demands of your wind farm: info@windwerk.com.br