Scotland bids to host world's first floating wind farm

The Scottish government yesterday revealed it is in talks with Norwegian energy giant Statoil about hosting the world's first floating wind farm at two potential sites off the Scottish coast.

Statoil is currently testing a prototype version of its Hywind floating turbine 10km offshore at Karmøy in Norway and, after a successful wave of tests, is now assessing potential sites for a full-scale floating wind farm.

The company is planning to deploy between three and five floating wind turbines to demonstrate the commercial viability of the technology and senior executives at the firm met yesterday with Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond to discuss the viability of two prospective sites – one off the coast of Lewis and one off Aberdeenshire.

The talks are at a fairly advanced stage with Scottish Development International and Marine Scotland having already worked with Statoil to undertake feasibility studies at the proposed sites.

Speaking following the meeting in Norway, Salmond said that the talks had been "very positive", adding that the project had the potential to revolutionise the offshore energy industry.

"The Hywind II wind farm project would see a Scotland-Norway collaboration push the boundaries of deepwater offshore wind beyond the 100m mark and open up vast areas of the world's oceans to the development of wind energy for the first time," he said.

A spokesman for Statoil told BusinessGreen.com that the latest talks had gone well, although he added that the company was also looking at potential demonstration sites in Norway and the US. "We are considering different countries and hope to be able to make a final decision in 2011," he said.

Offshore wind turbine foundations typically account for a sizable chunk of deployment costs and supporters of floating wind turbines are hopeful that the emergence of floating structures will allow developers to slash the overall cost of wind farms.

"The tests we have undertaken look good so far," said the Statoil spokesman. "Now we are looking to improve the efficiency and reduce the costs through the demonstration project."