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Britain to build world's largest floating wind farm

Xinhua, November 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Scottish government Monday announced it granted consent to a floating offshore wind farm project, which would be the largest of its kind in the world when completed.

The world's largest floating offshore wind development will be installed about 25 km off the coast of Peterhead, northeastern Scotland, according to a statement from the Scottish government.

Statoil, the company behind the project, proposes developing a pilot park of five floating 6 MW turbines with a total generating capacity of 135 GWh of electricity each year. It is expected that the Hywind Scotland development could power up to 19,900 houses.

Unlike conventional turbines, Hywind turbines will be attached to the seabed by a three-point mooring spread and anchoring system, according to the statement. The turbines will be connected by an inter-array of cables and an export cable will transport electricity from the pilot park to shore at Peterhead.

The Carbon Trust believes floating wind concepts have the potential to reduce generating costs to below 100 pounds/MWh in commercial deployments.

"The momentum is building around the potential for floating offshore wind technology to unlock deeper water sites," said John Swinney, Deputy First Minister of the Scottish government.

"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," he added. Endit