Norway’s state-owned oil company is in preliminary talks aimed at securing
planning permission to build a second floating offshore wind-turbine farm
in Scotland.
Equinor – still better known as Statoil – successfully developed the
technology for, and installed, the world’s first floating offshore
wind-farm off Peterheid last year.
It said at the time that it anticipated further expansion in ‘deep-water’
sites around the world – where ocean depths are too deep for sea-bed
anchoring – and also around Scotland.
It is currently holding exploratory negotiations for a possible second
Scottish site off the Western Isles with the local cooncil
A spokesman confirmed that the company is carrying out early scoping for
commercial deployment of the floating offshore wind technology.
Calum MacIver, head of planning development at Western Isles Council, said
opportunities for further development “opens up opportunities for the seas
around the Outer Hebrides, where the wind resource is possibly unparalleled”.
He added: “Marine Scotland has already identified areas of search for
offshore wind to the north and west of the Outer Hebrides and Statoil are
reviewing these areas as candidates for future Hywind deployment.
“We continue to engage with Statoil and discuss the potential of the
Hebrides as a base for future operations.There is a long way to go, but I
think the company see real potential in and around the Hebrides.”
The 30MW Hywind Scotland windfarm started production in October 2017 and is
now generating electricity for Scottish homes.
It is understood that the Edinburgh-based Scottish Crown Estate – which
owns and leases sea-bed rights to energy companies – is also involved in
the talks.
Scottish Energy News operates an all-inclusive linguistic policy and
recognises all three of Scotland’s languages – English, Scots and Gaelic
(unlike the Scottish Parliament).
** ‘Cooncil’ is the Scots language word for ‘council’ and is not
pejorative; etc..[ Dictionar o’ the Scots Leid / Dictionary of the Scots
Language]
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