The World’s First Floating Wind Farm - Hywind's Promising Start in Scotland

Posted by: Eileen Flynn // Student

Off the coast of Scotland, five turbines are stationed sporadically creating the world’s first offshore wind farm known as Hywind. Each tower stretches 575 ft. high and is anchored to the seabed and kept upright by 3,000 liters of sea water and 5,500 tons of ballast acting as a spar buoy. What was first labeled as a trial for floating turbines above deep waters, has turned into an exciting achievement for the renewable energy industry.

Compared to the 45 to 60 percent land based wind plants use of their theoretical capacity, Hywind has produced 65 percent of its maximum theoretical capacity over the course of three months.

Hywind has been put to the test, facing all different types of weather conditions including a hurricane, eight-foot waves and winter storms. This wind farm pushes the potential for establishing future off shore plants in the deep waters off the coast of the US and Japan.

Although the plant has only been operating for less than a year, EcoWatch confirms that Hywind has already exceeded expectations in terms of energy production. With this good news, off shore wind farms could become the next best contributor to renewable energy.

To learn more visit these sites:

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/03/the-worlds-first-floating-wind-farm-is-already-changing-green-energy

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/worlds-first-floating-wind-farm-could-revolutionise-renewable-energy-industry-1631687?mc_cid=600eb81494&mc_eid=5c5f821044