World’s largest floating wind farm in Scotland

Now another country has joined the ranks: Scotland. The Scottish government has just approved the construction of the UK's first floating offshore wind development, which will be the world's largest floating wind farm.

The wind farm will be located at the easternmost point of mainland Scotland, just 25 kilometres off the coast of Peterhead. Norwegian energy company Statoil is heading the development, called Hywind. It is estimated that enough electricity will be generated in this wind farm to power nearly 20,000 homes.

Unlike the usual land-based wind turbines, the Hywind turbines – all 5 floating 6MW turbines – will be anchored in the seabed and generated electricity will be transported to the short through undersea cable. The pilot development estimates that the 5 turbines will be able to generation 135GWh of electricity each year.

"Floating wind represents a new, significant and increasingly competitive renewable energy source… We are proud to develop this unique project in Scotland, in a region that has optimal wind conditions, a strong supply chain within oil and gas and supportive public policies," said Irene Rummelhoff, Statoil's executive vice president for New Energy Solutions.

Why harness wind power for energy?

Wind farms are now increasingly being built on land, on water and, increasingly, underneath bridges as a solution to the space problem to harness wind power and to generate electricity.

The main advantage of wind energy is that it is a clean fuel source. Unlike power plants that rely on the combustion of fossil fuels, wind energy doesn't pollute the air. Neither do wind turbines produce atmospheric emissions such as CO2 that cause acid rain.

Wind energy is a domestic source of energy, which means that as long as the sun shines and the wind blows, the energy produced from can be harnessed to power office buildings, homes and cars. In fact, the US estimates that the past 10 years, cumulative wind power capacity experienced a growth rate of 28% worldwide. Translation: It's getting windier and windier each year as wind supply is in abundance!

If you're thinking, "Well yeah wind energy's cool and all but wouldn't it cost a bomb?!", we've got good news. Wind power is now comparable in price to fossil fuels (and solar power is also catching up) according to a new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The report stats that costs have gone down steadily in the past 6 months alone and prices will continue to drop as solar and wind energy technologies get more and more sophisticated.

In the lead-up to the extremely important Paris climate conference talks happening end this month, it's promising to see governments and corporate energy interests opening up to embracing renewable energy, even if the motivations behind such decisions are obviously more economically-driven than environmentally-driven. If more countries and big energy corporations would get on board (the solar-powered train) to transit towards low-carbon societies and economies, we could keep warming within the limit of 2 degree Celcius.

Do you use renewable energy in your home? Let us know about your energy use in the comments section below!

READ MORE: Bright Ale: Community solar farm to open above Sydney beer brewery

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