Floating Wind: The Deep Water Frontier

Fixed foundations work only to about 60 meters of depth, which locks floating machines out of most of the offshore wind resource. Hywind Scotland proved spar floats in 2017, Kincardine and WindFloat Atlantic followed with semi submersibles, and Hywind Tampen became the largest floating farm at 88 MW in 2022, supplying oil platforms.

Japan, California, Scotland and Norway are queuing commercial floating rounds. Costs are still roughly double fixed offshore but falling..