New One In Town: Floating Offshore Wind Finally Gaining Momentum

Market leader sets a decent pace

In view of the Brexit and a possible new memorandum on staying in the UK, the Scottish government is reinforcing its commitment to innovative industries that will continue to earn money in the future. And especially in the field of renewable energies, Scotland has enormous potential. In addition to the on- and offshore wind farms which are already in place floating technology has now become the main focus. Due to floating turbines, construction is no longer limited to small water depths making new areas accessible.

At the moment, the world's first floating wind farm is built around 25 kilometers off the coast of Peterhead on the east coast of Scotland. The Hywind Offshore Wind Farm, whose turbines will be installed this summer, will supply electricity for 20,000 households starting at the end of the year. The project is realised by Norwegian energy company Statoil. An interesting fact is that in January, Masdar, a renewable energy company from Abu Dhabi, out of a sudden bought 25 percent shares of the project. Seems that business people in the United Arab Emirates have started to recognize the potential of floating wind farms and secured shares early in the race.

Over the past two weeks, the Scottish government has greenlighted floating project number 2 and 3: 15 kilometers off the coast of Aberdeen, eight 6-MW turbines are being built in the Kincardine wind farm. The park is to provide a further 56,000 Scottish households with green electricity.

Just a week later, the OK for the construction of the Dounreay Tri project, which is to be used for test purposes, came from Edinburgh. The project consists of two turbines and will be built six kilometers off Caithness off the north coast of Scotland. This puts the country at the forefront of global development with 92 megawatts of approved floating projects.

"It will also cement our place as one of the world’s leading nations in the innovation and deployment of floating offshore wind. If the technology can be demonstrated at scale, it has huge potential to help Scotland meet its energy needs and to develop a supply chain that can service opportunities elsewhere in Europe and in markets such as South East Asia and North America", says Paul Wheelhouse, Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy.

Floating projects are planned off the coast of Peterhead and Aberdeen (Image: Statoil)

France as a runner-up

France is the only other country at the moment which might be able to challenge Scotland’s position at the top of this list. French company Ideol has also developed floating turbines and has already deployed test turbines in Japan and off the French coast. However, so far these are only individual prototypes, not an entire wind farm. The company was also successful in the last French tenders, but it is still a long way from presenting the projects on a commercially reasonable scale.

Nevertheless, Ideol is already trying to open up new markets. Earlier this week, the company announced their collaboration with Gaelectric, an energy supplier from Ireland. The Irish island also has great potential: around 27,000 megawatts are to be explored for floating projects, the Irish government said. In order to exploit this potential, especially in the west of the island, an investigation is now being made for suitable sites. In a next step, a prototype will be deployed.

“In Ireland, we are blessed with significant reserves of wind energy which are having very tangible impacts in driving energy prices down and improving the sustainability of electricity generation. The development of onshore wind projects is well understood. However, the potential for off shore generation is enormous and holds the prospect of significant benefits for Ireland. Offshore wind speeds are faster and more consistent. We should also be able to deploy larger turbines with the prospect of moving up to 10 MW turbines from the onshore levels which are currently in the region of 2- 3 MW,“ says Gaelectric Founding Shareholder Brendan McGrath.

Giles Dickson stressed the need for cost reduction, but also the great potential (Image: WindEurope)

Competition from overseas?

European wind energy association WindEurope estimates the potential for up to 4,000 MW of floating wind turbines in Europe. In order to make full use of these possibilities, however, costs must be reduced. Up to 10 percent savings by the year 2020 are considered feasible said Giles Dickson. In recent years, the offshore wind industry has impressively highlighted the speed at which innovations can be implemented. At an event in Marseille, Mr Dickson recently pointed out that it was necessary for everyone to work together, because Europe needs to maintain leadership in this industry.

Although the Americans started off with only just their first offshore wind farm last year, the new floating technology is also useful for the US: Their entire west coast is not suitable for conventional offshore wind parks as the coastline rapidly descends steeply. But also in the Atlantic, areas that are not yet usable might be available for floating projects. And even from the Far East, Europe could still get hard competition, as Japan's coast is also suitable only for floating turbines.

Europe must quickly show that it is possible to operate this new technology on a commercial scale and take advantage of the momentum, Dickson emphasized. In that case, nothing could stop the development of this new form of energy production.