The turbines have a blade tip height of 190 metres | Credit: MHI Vestas

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• Cecilia Keating

• @cecilia_keating

  
  

• 12 November 2020

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MHI Vestas announces that 9.5MW wind turbine is to be transported to offshore floating Kincardine wind project, where it will float at water depths of up to 80m, MHI Vestas said

The world's largest offshore floating wind project marked a major milestone this week, after MHI Vestas announced it had successfully installed one of the project's 9.5MW turbines on its floating foundation.

The turbine, which is said to be most powerful turbine ever used in a floating wind project, is expected to be anchored at the 50MW Kincardine floating wind farm in Aberdeen Bay next month.

A Cobra Group spokesperson said the installation of the turbine marked a major milestone for the "world leading" floating wind project, which it expected to overtake the 30MW Hywind project as the largest floating wind farm in the world once operational.

"The Kincardine floating windfarm will be the biggest ever built," the spokesperson said. "The installation of the largest turbine ever to have been placed on a floating foundation represents a major milestone for the project and we are very much looking forward to seeing it generate power at site very soon."

Five 9.5MW units manufactured by MHI Vestas will be installed alongside one smaller 2MW unit at the Kincardine wind farm, MHI Vestas said.

"We are proud to have the most powerful turbines installed on a floating offshore wind platform," said MHI Vestas project director Allan Birk Wisby. "The V164-9.5 MW turbines are an excellent fit for the Kincardine project, and it is a great achievement by the team to have completed first installation at the quayside. We look forward to completing the remaining four units."

Unlike traditional offshore wind turbines, floating wind farms are not built upon the seabed, enabling them to be situated further out at sea in deeper waters where winds are often stronger, allowing higher levels of electricity generation. Advocates of the technology have long maintained that the absence of foundations and access to deeper waters could help to drive down the cost of offshore wind still further.

The latest demonstration project is of particular significance, as some had questioned whether floating foundations would be able to support the new generation of large turbines that have played a key role in driving down costs across the industry.