The fifth and final wind turbine for the £210 million Hywind Scotland commercial-scale floating offshore wind farm — a joint project between Norway-based energy company Statoil (www.statoil.com) and Abu Dhabi’s Masdar — has arrived at its final destination, 25km east of Peterhead in Scotland.

Earlier this summer, all five turbines were assembled outside Stord (Norway), and they have all now completed their journey to Scottish waters.

Each turbine took four days to be towed across the North Sea, where work was immediately started to install anchor lines and perform hook-up operation, (taking two or three days per turbine). Final installation is scheduled to be completed in the coming weeks.

Statoil has a 75% stake in the project, with the remaining 25% owned by Masdar. The latter’s executive director of clean energy, Bader Al Lamki, said: “Hywind Scotland is the world’s first project to accommodate commercial-scale wind turbines on a floating structure.

Demonstrating the enormous potential for delivering offshore wind energy in waters up to 1km deep, it represents the next stage in the evolution of the offshore wind industry.

“Masdar is proud to be among the pioneers of renewable energy around the world. Through this important partnership with Statoil, combining our vast industry knowledge and expertise, we are well placed to advance the adoption of this innovative technology in appropriate locations across our key markets.”

The 30MW wind farm will occupy 4km2 in an area of the North Sea with average wind speeds of 10m per sec. Upon completion later this year, the project will provide electricity to around 22,000 UK homes.

It will also bring Masdar’s gross renewable-energy generating capacity in the UK to more than 1,000MW.