World’s first floating wind farm off Peterhead

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Nicola Sturgeon will formally open the world's first floating wind farm later.

Five giant turbines have been installed about 15 miles from Peterhead, Aberdeenshire.

The floating approach allows turbines to be installed in much deeper waters than conventional offshore wind farms.

The 172-metre turbines are almost four times the height of the Forth Bridge.

• The tower, including the blades, stretches to 175m (575ft), dwarfing Big Ben
• Each tower weighs 11,500 tonnes
• The box behind the blades – the nacelle – could hold two double-decker buses
• Each blade is 75m – almost the wing span of an Airbus
• The turbines can operate in water up to a kilometre deep
• The blades on the towers have been a particular focus for innovation.
• Statoil says the blades harness breakthrough software – which holds the tower upright by twisting the blades to dampen motions from wind, waves and currents.

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Edited By Ady1 on 18/10/2017 07:41:07

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

I'm curious to see whether they can survive a proper storm, it can get a wee bit rough from time to time

With winter well on the way now the next few months will be interesting

[Bob RodgersonParticipant @bobrodgerson97362]

Ady, I'm sure they will be able to withstand the worst of North Sea Storms. I spent 40 odd years working on Semi Submersible rigs in the North Sea. In all that time we only had two occasions that caused concern as tour being able to hold station. Once when we broke two anchor chains and another time when we got caught by weather when setting out the anchors following a rig move.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

The first glance at that I saw the white blobs on the ship at right as the helmets of two people sat in a small boat! It took me a while to get the image scale!

Neil

[Thor 🇳🇴Participant @thor]

A bit bigger than the wind turbines not far from where I live, they have blades that are only 45m long.

Thor

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