Siemens has won the contract with Norwegian company, Statoil, to supply floating offshore wind turbines for a pilot project off the coast of Peterhead in Aberdeenshire. Siemens is set to supply five of its SWT-6.0-154 direct-drive offshore wind turbines for the 30-MW Hywind Scotland Project, which will be the largest floating wind farm in the world.
This Scottish pilot project demonstrates how future floating concepts for commercial and large scale-offshore wind parks can be cost-efficient and low risk. The turbines will be installed on floating foundations operating in water depths between 90 and 120 meters.

The Hywind Scotland project is expected to be commissioned in late 2017, and will deliver 135 gigawatt-hours of electric power per year (Source: Staoil)
The floating foundations are ballast-stabilized and fastened to the seabed with mooring lines. With their lightweight nacelles, Siemens large direct-drive wind turbines are particularly suited for the floating foundations designed as slender cylinder structures.
This concept has already proven its effectiveness in the 2009 project. In 2009, Statoil and Siemens successfully installed a 2.3-MW Siemens turbine at the first floating full-scale wind project worldwide, Hywind Demo. At the same time Siemens gathered a lot of experience on the specific requirements regarding the control parameters on a moving wind turbine under offshore conditions.
For the floating installation, Siemens’ technicians developed new controller settings for rotor pitch and yaw drive regulation. Construction of the new Hywind Scotland Project is scheduled for first half 2017.
“We are proud to once again be on board the floating wind project with Statoil, and to apply the experience we gained with the first full scale floater,” said Morten Rasmussen, Head of Technology at Siemens Wind Power and Renewables Division. “Hywind Scotland is another pioneering project and has the potential to become a trailblazer for future floating wind projects.”
Siemens
www.siemens.com/wind
Filed Under: Construction, News, Offshore wind