As the world’s leaders in floating offshore wind, Scotland and Norway are well-positioned to learn from each other to bolster their respective industries.
Last year, Aberdeen, Scotland, and the UK lost their position as host of the world’s largest floating offshore wind farm.
Kincardine, off Stonehaven, a 50MW project consisting of five turbines, started generating in 2018, becoming the largest such project in the world when it was completed in summer 2022.
However, when the 11-turbine 88MW Hywind Tampen off the coast of Norway opened in 2023, it claimed Kincardine’s crown.
But Scotland is poised to retake its position, thanks in part to approving Flotation Energy and Vargronn’s up-to-560MW Green Volt project.
Flotation Energy’s Green Volt project director Alexander Quayle said: “When operational in 2029, Green Volt will be one of the world’s largest floating offshore wind farms and promises to be a landmark opportunity for Scotland and the UK economy.”
Across the world, from North America, Europe and East Asia, floating offshore wind projects are in development.
With an early lead, Scotland is well positioned to not only leverage its own potential but to develop a skilled workforce that can send Scottish accents around the world, much as offshore oil and gas has done for decades.
And while Norway and Scotland are vying for leadership, there are ways the two can learn from each other.
“With a number of pilot projects now successfully operating for a number of years, there is a collaborative spirit across floating offshore wind as we look to use innovation to access scale and drive cost reduction,” Quayle said.
“So, it is not really about competition, but how we can collaborate to deliver agile and effective solutions that benefit the wider industry.”
Scottish goals
Europe currently hosts all four of the world’s currently operating commercial-scale floating offshore wind farms, covering 193MW of capacity.
Two of these projects are based off Scotland – Kincardine, and the 30MW Hywind Scotland project, the first utility-scale floating wind farm in the world, which was prototyped off Peterhead in 2017.
The other projects are Norway’s Hywind Tampen and the 25MW WindFloat Atlantic off Portugal.
“Scotland is already a world leader, and we are well placed to continue on this exciting journey,” Quayle said.
“Obviously, it’s pretty windy here, but our leading position in floating offshore wind as the market scales globally shows that there is much more to it than that.”
Britain has already mapped out ambitions to develop its floating wind sector. The UK Government aims to generate 5GW of its 50GW offshore wind target from floating wind by 2030.
In addition, the Scottish Government set its own target of 11GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030.
At present, the UK project pipeline is around 35GW, with the vast majority, 29GW, in Scotland. The UK has also tendered development rights for over 15GW of floating wind capacity.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has previously said that the publicly-owned company, GB Energy. will help fund the construction of floating projects.
Norway’s ambitions, meanwhile, are aimed at awarding 30GW of floating offshore wind capacity by 2040.
“Norway has a smaller population, but when you consider the Norwegian government’s stated ambitions, you can see how much potential there is in UK waters,” Quayle said.
Floating potential
Floating offshore wind has been touted as a vital technology for expanding global renewable energy capacity.
With traditional fixed bottom wind turbines limited to relatively shallow water depths of around 60m, floating means more areas can be opened up for development.
“Floating substructures have been a game-changer, allowing projects to be located in deeper waters,” Quayle noted.
“Being further from land also helps reduce visual impact, allowing larger turbines to be installed. Turbine efficiency and size are continuing to develop, with 15MW turbines due by 2030 and 20MW in the 2030s.
“The UK already has one of the largest offshore wind markets in the world, and Scottish projects are continuing to lead the way in catalysing and harnessing the potential of technological developments.”
For Scotland, early projects like Kincardine and Green Volt place it as a leader in a globally important technology. However, it will have to keep pace to maintain its lead.
Geographic factors
To a certain extent, geography will play an important role in developing Scotland’s floating wind potential. The platforms are, in effect, almost like small ships. Ports are essential for building and marshalling them.
That means the depth of water around each one, as well as the unique geography, will determine how floating projects are deployed.
“One big difference between Norway and Scotland is that Norway has good access to deepwater ports, which have been maintained over the years by the oil and gas industry,” Quayle said.
“Scotland has fewer facilities and they are much shallower. So port development is critical to Scotland’s future ambitions in floating offshore wind. Investment is already underway.”
Perhaps the most striking example of Norway’s lead in port capacity was when a maintenance contract for Hywind Scotland was awarded to Stavanger-headquartered Global Maritime.
This saw all five of the wind farm’s platforms and turbines towed from Aberdeenshire to Norway for repairs.
In addition, a turbine from the Kincardine project had to go to Rotterdam for repairs.
The lack of port infrastructure in Scotland or the UK needed to handle the platforms was dubbed a “national disgrace” by former UK offshore wind champion Tim Pick.
“The average depth of UK ports sits between eight and ten metres at quayside and these depths require a different design approach to maintain local content,” Quayle added.
“There are many different substructure designs proposed. Most designs only consider the offshore operating case, but it’s important to consider construction too.
“To succeed in the floating wind sector, we need to invest in our ports to make them ready – for example by increasing draught at quayside where we can, providing storage space and improving quay loadbearing capacity – but we also need to focus on floating substructures which have been designed to suit our ports.
“Investment requires an open dialogue between the ports, developers and government to ensure that there is a return on investment. In terms of learning from Norway, then, the key is to integrate investment in ports with a practical understanding of the opportunities that will be created – allowing Scotland to select technology that is well suited to its ports.”
Choices, choices
Cooperation between Scotland and Norway will help resolve some of the technical challenges facing floating offshore wind.
Fixed-bottom wind projects have several different foundations available, with monopiles dominating, followed by jackets, with rarer types like gravity-based or suction buckets used for more specific needs.
Floating wind also has several different types of platforms currently available – semi-submersible platforms, spar, and tension leg to name a few.
“With Green Volt, we’re using either a semi-submersible platform or tension leg platform model,” Quayle said.
“This means we expect to be able to build Green Volt in Scottish ports (with significant benefits to our local economy), but having the right port infrastructure will still be vital.”
Multiple projects, with developers sharing their experiences, will help whittle down the list, establishing use cases for each kind of technology, and allowing serial production of the best-suited designs to drive down costs.
“Hywind Tampen is based on spar technology, which requires at least 95m of water to float,” Quayle noted.
“Some areas on the West Coast of Scotland and areas of Shetland may have sufficient depth for spars for future projects, but they’d also require investment.”
Wind and fossil fuels
Both Norway and Scotland have been exploring how wind projects can provide electricity to oil and gas assets.
Hywind Tampen, for example, will supply power to partly electrify the Gullfaks and Snorre oil fields, helping to reduce their CO2 emissions.
“Norway has shown how oil and gas electrification can be a catalyst to larger scale developments in floating offshore wind,” Quayle said.
“We saw this in the development from the Hywind Demo project to Hywind Tampen.
“But it’s important to note that Scotland was the leader, and it was the Beatrice project off the Caithness coast that had the first offshore turbines supplying electricity to an oil and gas asset.”
Scotland hasn’t been idle in this regard. The Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) leasing round saw 13 projects awarded rights to develop projects to provide power to oil and gas platforms.
“Green Volt’s delivery as part of Crown Estate Scotland’s Innovation and Targeted Oil & Gas shows how we’re building on that record,” Quayle said.
“Just as Beatrice paved the way for Green Volt, Green Volt is set to pave the way for other floating projects in UK waters.”
Despite its strengths, Scotland needs to continue building on its strengths if it wants to make the most of its floating offshore wind potential.
“It’s important to continue to invest in skills and capability, so we can continue to have Scottish experts developing projects here and globally,” Quayle said.
“We also need to work on the refinement of consenting, support mechanisms and industrialisation strategies to support future projects.
“There are many areas where the industry can learn from the experiences of both Kincardine and Hywind Tampen.
“Each floating wind project is an important part of the journey towards improving our understanding and, most importantly, driving down future costs.”
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