The Crown Estate has granted Statoil a lease that will allow construction to proceed on the 30MW Hywind Scotland floating offshore wind project.
The UK seabed landlord said it had been working closely with the utility, the Scottish government and other partners to “help bring forward this innovative project”.
Ronnie Quinn, Crown general manager for Scotland, said: “Hywind’s . . . successful operation will demonstrate the viability of floating wind in deep water locations and bring forward cost reduction techniques that will move the whole sector forward.
He added that by “sharing best practice and deploying our expertise in seabed leasing” the body has been able to support the development of emerging technologies “from floating wind to tidal current energy”.
The policy has placed Scotland “in a very strong position to secure global investment in low carbon energy”.
Project director Leif Delp said: “Our objective with the Hywind pilot park is to demonstrate the feasibility of future commercial, utility-scale floating wind farms.
“This will further increase the global market potential for offshore wind energy, contributing to realising our ambition of profitable growth in renewable energy and other low-carbon solutions.”
Five 6MW turbines are due online in the Buchan Deep off Peterhead in 2017.
Image: Statoil
