Vattenfall Inaugurates Scottish Offshore Wind Farm
London, UK - On Friday last week (7 September 2018) the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre, with the world's largest turbine capacity, was inaugurated in the presence of Vattenfall`s CEO Magnus Hall and Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland.
Future wind power technology will be tested at the EOWDC in Aberdeen Bay, which is one of the first testing facilities of its kind. The aim is to accelerate the wind power industry’s drive for competitive renewable electricity generation. The eleven wind turbines, two 8.8 MW and nine 8.4 MW, have the largest turbine capacity in commercial operation in the world. One single rotor lap from the record 8.8 MW turbine provides a British household with electricity for a full day.
At EOWDC, essentially two areas will be studied:
New wind power technology The technology for building the foundations of the turbine towers is new. Instead of using traditional monopiles (hollow steel tubes), a new technique has been used at Aberdeen Bay; so-called suction buckets. The method is suitable for seabed with shallow rock strata, is virtually silent which minimizes the disturbance of wildlife at sea.
How the marine life is affected by wind farms For studies of marine wildlife around wind farms, Vattenfalll and the EU have invested EUR 3 million to study the effect of offshore wind farms on dolphins, salmon, sea trout and sea birds.
Magnus Hall, CEO of Vattenfall, said: “Vattenfall is in Britain to grow. The success of our wind power investments over the past decade, and the ambition of Scottish and UK governments to transform the energy and transport sectors, give us confidence in our UK future.”
Gunnar Groebler, Senior Vice President and Head of Business Area Wind at Vattenfall, said: “We have built this pioneering project in partnership and we especially appreciate the Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group (AREG), the Scottish Government and Crown Estate Scotland, for their commitment to deploying what is arguably the world’s most innovative wind farm.”
Source: IWR Online, 10 Sep 2018
