A wind turbine which normally stands 10 miles off the north-east coast is being towed hundreds of miles to the Netherlands for scheduled maintenance.
The UK does not currently have the facilities to service it.
KIN-02 – the turbine’s identifier – is heading to Rotterdam.
It is part of the Kincardine floating wind farm, until recently the largest project of its kind globally.
Kincardine Offshore Windfarm Limited (Kowl) which operates the development, had no comment.
One of the wind farm’s turbines had to go to Rotterdam for repair last year.
Local firms to repair in future
Speaking before the latest development, Kowl director Allan MacAskill told Energy Voice, sister website to The Press and Journal, work was taking place to make sure Aberdeen businesses are used to fix repairs on site in future.
This would apply to major component changeouts like blades and the turbine shaft.
Mr MacAskill said: “The idea of towing a machine all the way to and from Rotterdam, or even from Rotterdam, because we assembled it in Rotterdam – it’s not sensible for the future. It takes too long. It costs too much and so we have to deal with that.
“We don’t want to bring the machines into port once we’ve put them out. We want everything to happen offshore.”
He added: “We’re working with a number of people to make sure that when we have a broken turbine we… change that out offshore.
“It’s something we’re working closely on with a number of Aberdeen based companies and others to try and solve over the next few months.
“So if this happened to us again, we wouldn’t be going back to Rotterdam. We would fix it in situ.”
The near-50 megawatt Kincardine wind farm started generating power in 2021.
Earlier this month UK offshore wind champion Tim Pick described the situation of turbines having to be sent overseas for repair or maintenance as a “national disgrace”.
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