Statoil’s Hywind Scotland floating wind array has outclassed conventional bottom-fixed offshore projects in its first three months of operation off the UK, riding out extreme winter storms to record a standard-setting average capacity factor of 65%.
The 30MW development, built around five Siemens Gamesa 6MW turbines on spar foundations installed in over 100 metres of water off Peterhead, has been performing “better than expected”, according to the Norwegian developer, in supplying some 20,000 households with electricity.
