US floating wind designer Principle Power’s WindFloat1 prototype platform – which has been up on blocks since completing a six-year testing programme last year – is in-tow to Dundee, Scotland, to be mated with a 2MW Vestas turbine before installation off Aberdeen as the flagship of the 50MW Kincardine project.

Deployment of the pioneering unit, a triangular steel semi-submersible foundation fitted with "water-entrapment plates" at the base of each column and moored with chains to the seabed for stability, means the ACS Cobra-led development consortium will be able to start producing power in time to qualify for UK renewables obligation certificates (ROCs).