Off the east coast of Scotland, in water more than 300 feet deep, five towering turbines weighing thousands of tons float in the North Sea. Installed in 2017, the turbines power about 36,000 homes a year.
Wind farms have been erected on land and at sea for decades, but Hywind Scotland, operated by Norwegian oil giantEquinor ASA, is the first to float. Instead of being inserted into steel tubes buried in the seabed, the turbines sit in cylindrical buoys that are fixed to the seabed by mooring lines. The approach promises to enable wind farms in much deeper water, where there are often stronger winds, opening up swaths of untapped coastline to renewable energy.
Equinor believes that there are many countries where floating wind could be the best option for generating renewable power. In some places, such as Japan, South Korea and the U.S., a steep drop off the continental shelf means the water is too deep for fixed wind turbines, which are limited to depths of around 60 meters, or just under 200 feet.
