The world’s first full-scale floating wind farm, known as Hywind , has been inaugurated on the north-east coast of Scotland, a facility that will provide power to more than 20,000 homes. The inauguration marks a milestone in the technological race to develop floating turbines that can conquer the deepest oceans, thus avoiding the high costs of current wind turbines installed on the seabed using cement and steel.

According to the Norwegian company Statoil, which has manufactured them, Hywind wind turbines are expected to match or exceed the power generation capacity of current turbines, and expect to reduce their production costs very considerably in the future . So far, one turbine has been installed in situ off the Scottish coast, and four more are waiting to be moved from a Norwegian fjord.

More than 90% of the current offshore wind capacity is installed in Northern Europe, and the United Kingdom stands out especially, for its largest share. However, the growth rate in Germany is higher, and there are important projects in Japan, China and the US. Offshore wind energy accounts for 3% of global wind energy production, as most of the turbines are installed on land , with the visual impact that they entail.

Recently, it has been known that the company Haizea Wind will install a plant in the Port of Bilbao to produce offshore wind turbines, which will create 300 jobs.