Created by the Norwegian company Statoil, the world’s largest floating wind farm is coming to Scotland. Photo: Øyvind Hagen / Statoil ASA
Norway had the first one. Then Portugal got one. And Japan, too. Now, the latest nation to get its own offshore, floating wind farm – a technology considered a critical advancement in eco-friendly energy production – will be Scotland. And the Scots are doing it big.
Located 15 miles off the coast of Peterhead, Scotland, this wind farm will be the largest ever built. It will generate 135 GWh of electricity per year – that’s enough to power 20,000 households. The turbines will float in the water and anchored to the sea floor by a series of cables. Then one large cable will gather all the energy and send it back to headquarters onshore. The company behind the project is the Norwegian gas company, Statoil.
“Floating wind represents a new, significant and increasingly competitive renewable energy source,” said Statoil’s executive vice president for New Energy Solutions Irene Rummelhoff in a release. “Statoil’s objective with developing this pilot park is to demonstrate a commercial, utility-scale floating wind solution, to further increase the global market potential. We are proud to develop this unique project in Scotland, in a region that has optimal wind conditions, a strong supply chain within oil and gas and supportive public policies.”
The project is fairly exciting as the world seems to be environmentally withering away and taking all life with it. It’s about time we truly pursued green energy – using the resources at our disposal – and found a solution. But really, this is only the first step.
