The floating wind turbine installed on the Kincardine wind farm offshore Scotland has started delivering power to the grid, Spain’s Cobra Group, the majority owner of the 50MW project, said.
The 2MW Vestas unit was towed from the Port of Dundee to the installation site some 15 kilometres offshore Aberdeen mid-August.
Cobra plans to install five additional floating wind turbines with an individual capacity of 9.6MW in the first half of 2020. The turbine capacity and the number of the turbines to be installed have again been modified, it seems.
Earlier this year, the developer sought permission and was cleared to reduce the total number of the turbines to seven and change the individual capacity of the turbines to be installed to up to 8.4MW.
The aim of the project is to show the commercial viability of the floating wind and to provide Cobra with the necessary experience in developing similar projects around the globe, mainly in Asia.
In December 2017, Cobra teamed up with the French floating wind developer Eolfi to jointly pursue five 500MW projects that Eolfi Greater China, now 90% owned by Cobra, is developing in Taiwan, including the W1N project which is scheduled to come online in 2022.
Cobra is currently seeking permits from the local environmental authorities for the projects and will not start investing until it finds partners such as investment funds and utilities. The W1N project is expected to receive the necessary authorization this year.