World’s first full-scale floating wind farm being built off north-east coast of Scotland

The world's first full-scale floating wind farm being built off the north-east coast of Scotland, will allow harvesting of wind power in waters too deep for the current conventional bottom-standing turbines.

The Peterhead wind farm off Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, called Hywind Scotland, is using revolutonary technology to bring power to 20,000 homes.

According to Norwegian manufacturer Statoil, the output from the turbines is expected to equal or surpass generation from current turbines.

Statoil hopes to cash in on a boom in the technology, especially in Japan and the US west coast, where waters ran deep.

"This is a tech development project to ensure it's working in open sea conditions. It's a game-changer for floating wind power and we are sure it will help bring costs down," Leif Delp, project director, Hywind Scotland told BBC.

So far, one giant turbine has already been moved into place, while four are now ready to move in from a Norwegian fjord.

By the end of the month they would have all been towed 15 miles (25km) off Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, where they will float upright like giant fishing floats.

While the turbines are currently very expensive to make, Statoil believes that in the future it will be able to dramatically cut costs in the same way that manufacturers already had for conventional offshore turbines.

Meanwhile, Scotland has been able to set a new record for wind power production in the first half of the year, according to an independent conservation group.

According to analysis of WWF Scotland data, provided by WeatherEnergy, wind turbines provided around 1,039,001MWh of electricity to the National Grid during June.

According to renewable energy figures, power generated last month is enough to supply the electrical needs equivalent to 118 per cent of Scottish households or nearly 3 million homes.