The European Marine Energy Centre (Emec) has unveiled designs for a new floating offshore wind test site off Orkney.
The 100-megawatt (MW) test and demonstration site will lie 12 miles west of the islands, sitting further out to sea from Emec’s existing Billia Croo wave energy facility.
It comes as projects start getting ramped up under the massive ScotWind programme.
Development rights offered in the huge seabed auction were unveiled earlier this year.
The floating wind test centre will allow “commercial scale up and build-out” of technologies as they are de-risked, said Emec.
It is also expected to “capture and retain economic benefit” as Orkney and the rest of the Highlands and Islands become a catalyst for floating wind research and development.
Emec is proposing six berths for floating offshore wind turbines of up to 20MW generating capacity.
With water depths of 262-312ft, large waves and a wind speed of 35ft per second, the new facility is aimed at replicating conditions at locations where projects are planned around Scotland and the Celtic Sea.
Urgent need for Scottish test site
Emec managing director Neil Kermode said Scotland “needs to be testing these technologies and developing our supply chains now” to be ready for ScotWind.
He added: “Floating wind is still in its relative infancy, with limited experience globally of deploying and operating technologies in high-energy conditions.
“Emec’s new demonstration site will provide developers with a highly comparable testing ground to proposed project locations prior to large-scale roll-out.
“This testing will enable companies to de-risk projects helping to satisfy technical due diligence requirements and make financing easier and cheaper.”
Emec said its plans for the site had been “fine-tuned”, following extensive research and engagement with industry, to dovetail the sector’s existing and future requirements.
Aberdeen-based energy consultancy Xodus Group has provided support for the initial design phases.
The firm’s X-Academy team is working with Emec to establish a longer-term collaboration that would see the test facility play a key role in future skills needs.
X-Academy managing director Peter Tipler said: “Emec’s ambition to create a floating wind test site has been a great innovation project for Xodus to support and will be key to de-risking the sector for decades to come.
“There’s a huge opportunity here for Orkney to capitalise on the ScotWind developments and become a base for supply chain and assembly.”
More than 25 gigawatts of floating wind is due to be installed in UK waters over the next 20 years.
A report by the Aberdeen-based Net Zero Technology Centre said the development of test and demonstration sites would be key to making sure Scotland and the wider UK seize the economic benefits of floating wind.
Emec has not given a timescale for when its new facility will be operational, or disclosed the cost.
The centre operates on a not-for-profit basis, with backing of around £39 million of public funding from sources including the Scottish Government, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Carbon Trust, UK Government, Scottish Enterprise and Orkney Islands Council.
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