Hywind Scotland

Hywind Scotland is the world’s first commercial floating offshore wind farm: a 30 MW pilot park sited in the Buchan Deep roughly 25–30 km east of Peterhead, Scotland. Composed of five spar‑type floating turbines arrayed across about 4 km2, the project was developed and is operated by the Equinor‑led Hywind partnership (with Masdar as a minority partner) to demonstrate the technical and commercial viability of deep‑water floating wind. The installation entered operation in 2017 and has been used as a testbed for mooring and station‑keeping solutions, array electrical layouts and environmental monitoring; Equinor reports notably high average capacity factors since commissioning. Hywind Scotland established practical lessons on installation, tow‑out and commissioning of large floating turbines in harsh conditions and enabled operational data sharing with academia and supply‑chain actors. The scheme uses 33 kV HVAC submarine export cabling to a landfall near Peterhead and required regulatory consenting including marine licences and environmental management approvals; a range of post‑installation monitoring, mitigation and decommissioning documents have been prepared. As a demonstration asset rather than a large commercial array, Hywind Scotland’s strategic role is to derisk floating foundations, moorings and grid‑export arrangements for future, larger floating projects. The project remains referenced in regulatory and environmental registries as “Hywind Scotland Pilot Park” and is held in a project company established for the development and consenting activity.