Wind turbines off coast of Scotland make waves in renewable energy

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What about raising the bar on the potential of offshore wind power?

Growing out a concept and a drawing on a napkin have turned into big floating wind turbines off the coast of Scotland.

They are making news headlines and are giving energy watchers a lot to think about. The turbines were tethered to the seabed about 15 miles from Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, said the BBC.

This is the Hywind Scotland Pilot Park, a park configuration of five 6 MW turbines with a total installed capacity of 30 MW and a transmission voltage of 33 kV.

"The 30 MW Hywind Scotland pilot park will demonstrate the feasibility of future commercial floating wind farms that could be more than four times the size. This will further increase the global market potential for offshore wind energy," Norwegian energy firm Statoil said.

The operation to tow the turbines into place was completed in August. The wind turbines are out at sea and are producing electricity, said reports.

The project is operated by Statoil in partnership with Masdar. Partner Masdar will install Batwind, described in the Statoil announcement as a 1MWh lithium battery storage solution for offshore wind energy.