The world’s largest floating wind farm has been built in the waters around Scotland. The Norwegian energy company Statoil will develop a flotilla of five large turbines about 25 km off the Scottish coast. The UK is ‘blowing every other country out the water’ with Northern Europe’s largest offshore wind capacity. Germany is working hard to catch up to the UK, while Japan, China and the US are also focusing heavily on how they can harness the huge potential of power from wind farms built on the water.

Due to improved technology, offshore wind farms have become an economically competitive. It is a limitless source of power with massive potential, and there are currently over 40 of these projects being developed around the world. Inspired by the durability of rugged oil and gas platforms that have weathered storms for decades, many of these projects are aiming to conquer the deeper ocean depths of greater than 40 metres.