A world first — Battery storage on offshore floating wind farm

Norway-based Equinor and renewable firm Masdar in Abu Dhabi have unveiled the world’s first battery attached to the floating Hywind windfarm in Scotland. The battery system was designed and developed by German-American battery storage integrator Younicos.

Known as Batwind, the 1.2MW battery storage system is the first in the world to be connected to an offshore wind farm. The battery project was constructed on land about 15 miles from where the five floating turbines are generating clean electricity.

The battery system has been designed to eliminate peaks and troughs in electrical generation in order to maximize the efficiency and commercial value of the 30MW Hywind floating wind project, according to the developers.

The 1-megawatt batteries will be used to store power when the wind is blowing and release it to the National Grid at times when it is most needed. This provides a reliable and smart way of supporting supply and demand.

For the battery project, Younicos Y Cubes – modular battery containers – have been positioned at the Hywind Scotland onshore substation in Peterhead. “The software will tell the battery when to store electricity and for how long, and when and how much to inject back onto the grid,” said Younicos managing director Karim Wazni.

Computer model of what Hywind will look like on completion. Statoil’s floating wind turbine concept—has been designed to generate electricity offshore with minimal environmental impact. Hywind supports a wind turbine generator on a floating steel cylinder extending 80—100 meters beneath the surface of the sea.

Statoil ASA

Hywind floating wind farm
The platform was manufactured by Statoil (Now Equinor) and uses digital technology to allow for adjustments to be made to the operation of the turbines from a base on land. Leif Delp, project director for Hywind told the BBC in July 2017: “This is a tech development project to ensure it’s working in open sea conditions. It’s a game-changer for floating wind power and we are sure it will help bring costs down.”

Hywind was officially opened last October by Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon – and is the first floating wind farm to not be anchored to the bottom of the ocean.

Bader Al Lamki, Masdar’s executive director for clean energy, said battery storage technologies said the potential for greater commercial opportunities is unlimited.

“Energy storage is vital to unlocking the full potential of renewables by mitigating the variable nature of wind and solar power,” he said. “Batwind will help us to understand how we can deploy this new technology in future projects, both in solar power and wind power plants.”