Hywind Scotland, the world’s first floating offshore wind farm, was formally opened by the First Minister of Scotland (Nicola Sturgeon) last month and is now delivering electricity to the Scottish grid.

The 30MW project, operated by Statoil in partnership with Masdar, is 25km offshore (near Peterhead) and consists of six floating turbines, each with three mooring lines and a 78m-tall underwater ballast to keep it upright.

The principal objective is to verify the new up-scaled design and demonstrate the viability of a commercial-scale floating wind farm.

Statoil vice-president Irene Rummelhoff said: “Hywind can be used in water depths up to 800m, thus opening up areas that so far have been inaccessible for offshore wind.

“Knowing that up to 80% of offshore wind resources are in deep waters, where bottom-fixed installations are not suitable, floating offshore wind is expected to play a significant role in the future.”

The Carbon Trust’s chief executive, Tom Delay, said: “A decade ago, the Beatrice offshore wind demonstrator in the Moray Firth was the world’s first deep-water project with fixed foundations.

“Today marks another crucial milestone in the development of offshore wind, and again it is happening in Scotland — the world’s first commercial floating wind project.”