Scotland at center of offshore wind research
The northeast of Scotland is poised to become the global center for offshore wind scientific research, following the announcement this week from Swedish power company Vattenfall, which announced the successful projects that will take part in a €3m research program at its European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre.
The European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC) in Aberdeen Bay, Scotland, is a 92.4 megawatt (MW), 11 turbine offshore wind test and demonstration facility. The EOWDC was even constructed in a way which served as a demonstration, built with Vestas V164-8.4MW turbines on top of suction bucket foundations, an industry first.
Though the EOWDC will play a big role in the offshore wind industry, it also briefly found itself headline news around the world, by virtue of a lawsuit that Donald Trump, now US President, took out against the developers for building an offshore wind farm where it could be seen from his Trump International Golf Club. Thankfully for all, the case was thrown out by the UK Supreme Court back in December of 2015.