Plans for Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm

Plans have been unveiled for a floating offshore wind farm project in Scotland. The Kincardine offshore wind farm is a proposed demonstrator floating project located near Aberdeen, approximately eight miles from the coast. The proposers are called Pilot Offshore Renewables. This is an Aberdeen-based joint venture between an offshore wind developer and consultancy firm MacAskill Associates and Renewable Energy Ventures.

If the project goes ahead, it will use floating semi-submersible technology to install about eight wind turbines in waters around 60-80 metres deep. What about the effects on the environment? An environmental scoping assessment has been completed by consultants Atkins and has identified a possible site as suitable for the project. The actual platform to be used has not been decided finally, although it’s a possibility that the WindFloat platform will be used. Earlier in May, Principle Power was granted $47 million in US government funding for the construction of a 30MW project using the WindFloat platform near Oregon, in the  Pacific Ocean. This project will feature the semi-submersible foundation and five Siemens 6MW turbines.

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The developer has set a tight schedule for the project, with the receipt of a lease from the UK’s seabed landlord, the Crown Estate, slated for some time this quarter. The submission of a consent application is proposed for the third quarter and a final investment decision is suggested for the second quarter of 2015. If all goes as planned, the project would be commissioned by the end of 2017. Developers working off the coasts of the UK, Norway, Denmark, Portugal and the US are all pursuing plans to demonstrate floating turbine designs, but the Kincardine proposals put Scotland in the running with Norwegian energy giant Statoil’s proposed 30NMW Buchan Deep project to build the world’s first floating offshore wind farm.

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Allan MacAskill, the director of Pilot Offshore Renewables, said: “This is an exciting project that will demonstrate the potential of floating technology in the global offshore wind industry. The semi-submersible design has been successfully tested off the coast of Portugal for more than three years. This technology could have huge worldwide potential, as it is suitable for deployment out of sight from land, in deep waters. We believe that this, along with other offshore demonstration projects around our coast, will further Scotland’s position as a global leader in offshore wind.”