The European Marine Energy Centre (Emec) in Orkney, off the north coast of the Scottish mainland, has finished a concept design for the new 100MW project.
The centre, which tests marine renewable energy technology including wave and tidal energy devices, aims to secure a lease for a site about 20km west of the islands, further out to sea than its existing wave energy test facility at Billia Croo.
The proposed test site will include six berths for floating offshore wind turbines with up to 20MW rated capacity. With water depths of 80-95m, large waves and a mean windspeed of 10.7m/s, Emec said the site will offer floating wind developers representative metocean conditions to those found in ScotWind, Celtic Seas and future leasing rounds.
Four of the six berths will be grid-connected, while the final two berths will be reserved for alternative applications such as hydrogen generation.
“Following extensive research and engagement with industry, the site set-up and configuration has been fine-tuned to dovetail the sector’s existing and future requirements, with more than 25GW of floating wind due to be deployed in UK waters over the next 20 years,” an Emec announcement said.
The site has been designed specifically for floating wind developers to ‘de-risk’ their technologies, putting turbines, floating structures, moorings and other components to the test in an energetic offshore environment. This will enable performance to be refined on a wide range of floating technologies prior to commercial scale-up.
The test and demonstration site will also take advantage of nearby Scapa Flow, where Emec tests other marine energy technology, and there are plans for an ‘offshore wind hub’, supporting future job creation and supply chain development.
Emec will provide the site management, technical and supply chain support to allow developers to focus on developing and demonstrating their technologies.
“Floating wind will have a large role to play in our future energy mix, so we’re gearing up to support development of the sector,” said Emec managing director Neil Kermode. “We’re looking at how we can use our existing testing infrastructure for floating wind subsystem testing, as well as developing a new test site to enable full-scale demonstrations ahead of commercial deployments around Scotland.
“Floating wind is still in 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.
“We know the demand is there, we’ve had a stream of requests over the last few years from wind developers seeking a test site to help them commercialise their technologies, so this feels like the natural next step in the evolution of Emec. Having hosted more wave and tidal energy technologies at Emec than anywhere else in the world, we’re well versed in running offshore testing grounds for renewable energy.
“For Scotland to be ready for ScotWind, we need to be testing these technologies and developing our supply chains now.”
The centre is working with energy consultancy Xodus, which has provided support during the initial design phase, and the partners are working to ensure the facility plays a key role in developing the skills needed to grow the sector.
“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,” said Peter Tipler, strategic director at Xodus.
“As Emec has demonstrated with the operation of its wave and tidal testing infrastructure, and more recently hydrogen demonstration projects, a floating wind test site will act as a catalyst for jobs, skills and supply-chain development, helping to retain economic benefit locally. The sector faces a massive ramp-up in demand for skilled individuals to work in the sector.
“A key opportunity that we’re keen to explore is the use of the test site as part of our X-Academy programme, providing Xcellerators (programme participants) first-hand experience on real projects as part of their training.”
Emec is attending the Renewable UK and Scottish Renewables Floating Offshore Wind Conference this week, 12-13 October, in Aberdeen.
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