Hywind Scotland

In 2024, Equinor and Masdar executed a heavy maintenance campaign on all five turbines at the 30 MW Hywind Scotland floating wind farm. The Siemens Gamesa turbines were disconnected and towed to the Wergeland Base in Gulen, Norway, where major maintenance was performed in a controlled, sheltered environment before the units were returned offshore and reconnected at the site off Peterhead.

In 2022, Marine Scotland, in collaboration with Equinor as operator of Hywind Scotland, conducted a survey at the floating wind farm to test three types of fishing gear—creels, fish traps and jigging lines—around and within the project area. The work aimed to understand how different fishing methods can safely operate in and interact with floating offshore wind farms, providing evidence to support coexistence between fisheries and floating wind developments.

In June 2020, an environmental and structural inspection survey was carried out at the Hywind Scotland Pilot Park using a work-class ROV with high-definition video, deployed from the survey vessel M/V Stril Explorer. The campaign examined turbine substructures, mooring lines, suction anchors and infield cables to assess colonisation, zonation, diversity and abundance of fouling communities, and to compare epifouling coverage and thickness with earlier observations from 2018.

Equinor’s Hywind Scotland export cable and associated grid connection to the SSE Peterhead Grange substation entered commercial operation in October 2017, when the five‑turbine, 30 MW Hywind Scotland Pilot Park was opened. The project’s single 33 kV AC export cable, linking the offshore floating wind farm at Buchan Deep to shore and into the local distribution network at Peterhead Grange, thus began continuous commercial transmission service as part of the fully operational wind farm.