Norwegian energy giant Equinor will temporarily remove all five floating wind turbines from the pioneering Hywind Scotland array later this year after discovering a need for “heavy maintenance” on the Siemens Gamesa machines deployed there, Recharge has learned.

The 6MW turbines will be towed back to Wergeland on the west coast of Norway as part of a maintenance programme that is likely to take around four months and will disrupt power output from the project operating 24km off Peterhead since 2017.