Hywind positions Masdar at forefront of floating wind tech

ABERDEEN / WAM

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Norway’s Minister for Energy and Petroleum, Terje
Soviknes, attended the formal unveiling of the world’s first commercial-scale floating wind farm, a renewable energy project which paves the way for the development of wind energy resources in areas beyond the reach of existing
offshore wind technologies, according to Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, Masdar.
Government dignitaries at the inauguration of Hywind Scotland were also joined by Khaled Abdulla Al Qubaisi, CEO of Mubadala Investment Company’s Aerospace, Renewables and Information Communications Technology Platform, Rawda Al Otaiba, Deputy Head of Mission at the UAE Embassy in the UK, and Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, CEO of Masdar, a 25 percent shareholder in the wind farm alongside Statoil of Norway.
The completion of Hywind Scotland, together with next month’s
inauguration of the Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm off the coast of eastern England, brings the total power generating capacity of the UK-based renewable energy projects in which Masdar is an investor to more than 1 gigawatt (GW).
Further optimising the output of the wind park by mitigating the intermittency of wind energy, Hywind Scotland will also be connected to a 1 megawatt-hour (MWh) lithium battery. Once installed, the Batwind storage solution will have the same battery capacity as 2 million smart-phones.
“Masdar has a long-standing commitment to renewable energy in the United Kingdom, and we are immensely proud to deliver our first project in Scotland alongside our partners,” said Mohamed Al Ramahi of Masdar.
“Hywind Scotland is showing that floating wind technology can be commercially viable wherever sea depths are too great for conventional fixed offshore wind power. This opens up a number of new geographies, and we are already looking at future opportunities with our partners, building on our existing international portfolio in wind energy and solar power,” he added.
Al Ramahi went on to say that the addition of the Batwind battery storage solution adds another exciting dimension to the project by supporting the advancement of a technology with the potential to further improve efficiencies and lower costs for offshore wind.
Floating around 25 kilometres off the coast of Aberdeenshire in water depths of 95-120 metres, Hywind Scotland is now supplying electricity to an estimated 20,000 British households. The project’s five wind turbines, each with a capacity of six megawatts (MW) were secured into place in August after being towed across the North Sea from Norway.
Hywind Scotland is Masdar’s third UK-based wind farm. It joins the world’s largest offshore wind power development currently in operation, the 630MW-capacity London Array, and the 420MW Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm, which will be officially launched
in November.
Besides Hywind Scotland, Masdar is a partner with Statoil in Dudgeon, and the two companies have pledged to collaborate on future renewable energy projects. Statoil owns 75 percent of Hywind Scotland.
Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland, delivered opening remarks at the inauguration, followed by speeches by the Norwegian energy minister Terje Soviknes, Irene Rummelhoff, Executive Vice President of Statoil, and Mohamed Al Ramahi of Masdar.