Scotland is well on its way to achieving its goal of generating 100% of its electricity from renewables by 2020. Most of this will come from wind farms, due to the harsh North Sea climate and long winters.
The town of Peterhead on the extreme northeast coast of Scotland is hosting the nation’s first floating wind turbine project. Engineers have now taken a significant step forward in bringing floating wind power to Scotland, and freeing the people from at least some carbon pollution.
Floating Wind Power All the Way from Norway
Building wind farms in water deeper that 300 feet has been impractical owing to the expense. Engineers believe they have found a solution. Make them float, and then anchor them to the ocean floor with cables. They have constructed 5, six-megawatt ones in a Norwegian fjord. Now they are towing their portable energy sources across the sea to Scotland, where they are assembling them to power close to 2,000 homes.
They call their floating wind power project, Hywind. “This is a tech development project to ensure it’s working in open sea conditions,” the project director told BBC News.
“It’s a game-changer for floating wind power and we are sure it will help bring costs down.” His company is looking ahead to similar floating wind farms off the U.S. West Coast, and Japan.
A system of anchors and steel cables is tethering each floating generator to the floor. When complete, a large electric cable will feed their energy harvest to the Peterhead base station 15 miles away on shore.
The engineering numbers are mind-bending and we report the most significant ones below:
- The 11,500 tonne floating towers stand 575 feet tall above the ocean
- Two double-decker buses would fit into the generating compartment
- The blades are 250 feet long. This is almost the wingspan of an Airbus
- The floating wind power machines work in water up to 0,6 miles deep
Software twists the blades to keep the towers steady as they turn, thereby countering the effects of motion from winds, currents and restless waves.
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