The world’s largest floating wind turbines have just been installed in Scotland, here’s theirs

With a power of 9.5 MW, the five wind turbines that Danish manufacturer Vestas just installed 15km off the Scottish coast are among the most powerful in the world in an emerging class of floating wind turbines. Together with two other small wind turbines, these five giants 190 meters high will form Kincardin Marine Farms. Designed by Spanish company Cobra, it will supply electricity to 55,000 homes. Ten times more than the largest solar farm in France, in Marcousis (Essonne).

beyond the coast

These wind turbines are not placed on the ocean floor, like the hundreds already standing on European coasts, or which will soon be installed in front In Saint-Nazaire, Ile d’U, Saint-Brieac and five other French marine parks.

They are connected by huge floating metal structures that barely protrude from the surface and are anchored by cables like some oil platforms.

The big advantage, these large floating mills can be installed from deeper down than installed wind turbines, hence further from the coast. Where they can no longer be separated, where the sea is less frequent and where the winds are more powerful and more regular.

major source of electricity in the world

The electricity they generate is the most expensive. But the International Energy Agency (IEA) believes that thanks to advanced technologies, This will be reduced to the level of wind turbines installed within ten years.

France, despite its vast maritime territory, the second largest on the planet, Don’t own a wind farm yet offshore in activity. The United Kingdom is the world leader in this field. Its current output, 11 gigawatts – the equivalent of ten nuclear reactors – will quadruple in twenty years.

According to the IEA, marine wind turbines, installed and floating, will become the largest source of electricity generation in Europe in 2050, ahead of onshore wind, nuclear and photovoltaic. The IEA also recognizes that their global growth potential is so vast that they can produce eighteen times the current consumption of electricity.

Kincardine Turbines are now operating from Aberdeen. A Scottish port, quite a symbol, is also the British capital of gas and oil exploitation in the North Sea.