Floating wind farm off coast of Scotland moving forward

Wind farm project off coast of Scotland moving ahead.

SgurrEnergy, part of Wood Group’s clean energy business, acted as technical advisor for the investment in Hywind floating offshore wind farm, located off the coast of Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. According to a SgurrEnergy release, the project is the world’s first multi-turbine floating offshore wind farm.

Consisting of five Siemens SWT6MW-154 wind turbine generators (WTGs), the 30MW wind farm will use floating bases for the WTGs, which will be tethered to the seabed. This is the first time the Siemens SWT 6MW WTG will be used in a floating wind farm, building on experience acquired with a 2.3 MW prototype off the coast of Norway.

SgurrEnergy’s consultants and engineers provided technical due diligence services, reviewing the project design, construction contracts, project schedule, financial model and operations and maintenance plan. During the consultation period an energy yield assessment for the wind farm was also completed.

“This project means a very significant step forward in the floating offshore wind industry, whereby the gap between technology demonstration and commercial bankable projects will be reduced,” said Marc Costa Ros, senior consultant at SgurrEnergy, in the press release.

“We are convinced that additional similar projects can and will be built over the next few years, de-risking floating wind and creating attractive investments.”

With plans for the project to be operational by the third quarter of 2017, onshore construction works have begun and offshore construction is planned for this summer.