Hywind Scotland, the world’s first floating offshore wind farm, has been in operation for five years since it opened in 2017.

Hywind Scotland, located off the coast of Peterhead, Scotland, is the world’s first floating offshore wind farm and the world’s best performing offshore wind farm, achieving a capacity factor of 54% over five years of operation. Importantly, Hywind Scotland has met high safety standards, marking five years without injuries lost during its operations.

With a capacity of 30 MW generated by 5 turbines, Hywind Scotland uses the Hywind floating beam substructure concept. The wind farm generates enough electricity to power the equivalent of 34,000 UK homes.

Equinor is seizing further opportunities to develop floating offshore wind power around the world, being a pioneer of new technologies, and bringing with it the experience gained from Hywind Scotland. Equinor’s next floating wind project, Hywind Tampen, delivered first power earlier this fall, and when it starts operating in 2023, Equinor will operate roughly half of the world’s total floating wind capacity.

William Munn, Plant Manager Hywind Scotland at Equinor, said: “Operating the Hywind Scotland project for the last five years has exposed Equinor to some of the unique challenges associated with floating wind farms and the results if we do it right. Due to its location and the harsh weather conditions it faces, Hywind Scotland is exposed to higher wind speeds than we normally see on a fixed-bottom wind farm, but also has to withstand large swells, while continuing to generate power with the wave height. from 10 meters. Due to the environment, unique methods of operation and maintenance are required, such as high-performance Crew Transfer Vessels (CTV) that can continue to operate in above-standard transfer conditions.”

Equinor’s patented floating wind turbine motion controller in action at Hywind Scotland, contributing to world-leading capacity factor performance despite the additional motion experienced by floating offshore wind substructures. To maintain the wind farm, Equinor has implemented a unique operation and maintenance (O&M) model, which involves upskilling onshore wind technicians to maintain turbines in a floating offshore environment.

Steinar Berge, Head of Floating Wind at Equinor, said: “Equinor is the most experienced floating wind operator and developer in the world, and is taking the lessons learned from Hywind Scotland further into global opportunities. We are advancing plans to develop additional projects, including in South Korea, Australia, France, Spain, California, the British Celtic Sea and Norway. Hywind Scotland gives Equinor great confidence in floating offshore wind technology and allows us to advance larger projects with strong operational foundations, bringing us closer to our ultimate goal of industrializing and commercializing floating wind power.”

In addition to operational enhancements to the floating offshore wind, Equinor has been driving environmental initiatives at the Hywind Scotland project. Equinor is working with the Scottish Government Directorate, Marine Scotland, to better understand how fishermen can operate safely around and in floating offshore wind farms. Other initiatives include installing a standalone SailBuoy to map fish presence and biomass amounts with acoustic sensors, and testing a new environmental DNA analysis (eDNA) method at Hywind Scotland.