World's first floating wind farm starts production in Scotland

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OSLO, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The first floating wind farm in the world off the coast of

 Scotland has started to deliver electricity to the Scottish grid, said its operator, 

Norwegian multinational oil and gas company Statoil, on Wednesday.

The 30MW wind farm, named Hywind Scotland, is located 25 km offshore 

Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and will power approximately 20,000

 households, Statoil said in a statement.

It is operated by Statoil in partnership with Masdar, a renewable energy

 company based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

"Hywind can be used for water depths up to 800 meters, thus opening up

 areas that so far have been inaccessible for offshore wind," Irene Rummelhoff,

 executive vice president of the New Energy Solutions business area in Statoil,

 was quoted as saying.

"The learnings from Hywind Scotland will pave the way for new global market

 opportunities for floating offshore wind energy," she said.

In an opening event in Aberdeen, Scotland, on Wednesday, Scottish First Minister

 Nicola Sturgeon officially opened the floating wind farm.

"I am delighted to open Hywind Scotland -- the world's first floating wind farm

," Sturgeon said. "This marks an exciting development for renewable energy in Scotland."

The project "will help us meet our ambitious climate change targets" and "positions

 Scotland as a world centre for energy innovation," she said.

In recent years, there have been significant cost reductions in both the onshore

 and bottom fixed offshore wind sectors. Floating wind is expected to follow

 a similar downward trajectory over the next decade, making it cost competitive

 with other renewable energy sources, according to Statoil.