Siemens announced its deal with Norwegian company Statoil to supply five of its SWT-6.0-154 direct drive offshore wind turbines for the 30 megawatt (MW) Hywind Scotland project.
The Hywind Scotland project is expected to be commissioned in late 2017 and deliver 135 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electric power per year.
The company will be installing floating offshore wind turbines on floating foundations operating in water depths between 90 and 120 meters. Siemens said the world’s largest floating wind project is located in Scottish waters 25 kilometers off the coast of Peterhead in Aberdeenshire.
Siemens in a statement said that it will start assembly of the new Hywind Scotland Project in West Coast Norway in the first half 2017. The company will utilize its experience acquired when it executed a similar wind power project in 2009.
In 2009, Statoil in association with Siemens installed a 2.3 MW Siemens turbine at the first floating full-scale wind project worldwide, Hywind Demo. The floating foundations are ballast-stabilized and fastened to the seabed with mooring lines.
Siemens says its large direct drive wind turbines are suited for the floating foundations designed as slender cylinder structures. For the floating installation Siemens technicians have developed new controller settings for rotor pitch and yaw drive regulation.
“Hywind Scotland is another pioneering project and has the potential to become a trailblazer for future floating wind projects,” said Morten Rasmussen, head of Technology at Siemens Wind Power and Renewables Division.
Rajani Baburajan
editor@greentechlead.com