Final turbine arrives for floating wind farm project

The fifth and final turbine has arrived off the northeast coast of Scotland as developers press ahead with the world’s first fullscale floating wind farm.

The first of the turbines set sail from Norway on its four-day voyage last month and all have now reached their destination at Buchan Deep, which lies 15 miles off the coast of Peterhead.

Final installation at the 30 megawatt Hywind Scotland project is set to be completed in the coming weeks. The £210 million development is a partnership between Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s renewable power company, and Norwegian energy giant Statoil. The scheme will provide 20,000 homes with electricity.

Bader Al Lamki, executive director for clean energy at Masdar, said that Hywind Scotland “represents the next stage in the evolution of the offshore wind industry”.

The Hywind milestone comes after Peterhead Port Authority recently secured a deal to harbour one of the world’s largest floating cranes for Vattenfall’s European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre.