Scotland is one of those places that always pops up in any list of top countries accelerating renewable energy activity – and rightly so.
We have featured a number of firsts Scotland is home to – or has introduced; one of those, the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC) – home to the world’s most powerful turbines – is another project to beef up that resume a bit, having generated power for the first time Sunday. Vattenfall leads the project, which has 11 record-breaking turbines designed by MHI Vestas capable of meeting the energy needs of a typical household over 24 hours with a just a single rotation.
EOWDC
Power exported Sunday was sent through 66 kilovolt (kV) subsea cabling, a capacity for commercial offshore wind in Scotland never achieved before.
“Generating power from the EOWDC for the first time, secured by Europe’s technological leadership in offshore wind, gets us to a future free from fossil fuel faster. I look forward to full power later in the summer,” said Gunnar Groebler, Vattenfall’s head of Business Area Wind.
The Scottish Government has a strong record of supporting clean power, with Energy Minister, Paul Wheelhouse, adding: “This is a very significant milestone for the 93.2MW EOWDC. I congratulate the project team at Vattenfall for not only a successful installation but also their achievement in generating electricity from the world’s most powerful offshore wind turbines which, with each rotation, will generate enough energy to power the average Scottish home for 24 hours.”
