Buoyant future: How Aberdeen's FLOWIC facility aims to turbocharge the UK's floating offshore wind sector

Already accounting for 15GW of installed capacity, offshore wind has become a major contributor to the UK’s electricity requirements, generating 17 per cent of our total electricity in 2023.

But if we’re going to come anywhere near our 2050 net zero ambitions, we’ll need a lot more of it. And with pressures on seabed use around the UK growing, developers are increasingly excited about the prospect of using floating offshore wind technology - which uses turbines mounted on buoyant structures tethered to the seabed, rather than fixed foundations - to exploit the deeper, windier and hitherto largely untapped patches of ocean that lie further offshore.

A new innovation centre on the edge of Aberdeen is aiming to accelerate this expansion, building on the UK’s existing expertise in floating wind by providing access to a suite of specialised test facilities to help engineering firms in the region apply their deep-rooted offshore engineering knowledge to this exciting new frontier.