Climate editor Justin Rowlatt holding railing on back of boat looking at floating wind turbineImage source, BBC/Kevin Church
Image caption, The BBC's Climate Editor went to Aberdeen to see the turbines in action

There are five turbine towers over the North Sea.

They are the same height as the giant towers of Canary Wharf.

Kincardine is a floating wind farm.

It can help solve an engineering problem. It shows how offshore wind can be a global energy source.

Conventional offshore wind turbines can't be used in most of the world because of the sudden dive close to the ocean.

These can only be deployed in shallow water up to 60m from the sea floor.

Imagine for a moment the fearsome forces these structures must endure if the solution is to be found.

The Kincardine wind farm is located in the tempestuous North Sea.

Britain's expertise in offshore engineering made it possible to develop the oil and gas resources in the North Sea.

There are three floats on each tower. They are painted bright yellow and welded onto a 67m platform.

Floating wind turbine size

Greg Campbell- Smith of Principle Power explained that this is not a passive structure.

Changes in the wind and sea can affect the floats. The tower leans away from the wind in strong winds.

A network of pumps and valves help set the turbine at the ideal angle for the wind.

The platform is secured to the seabed by using weighted cables below the surface.

The Kincardine facility shows the potential of floating wind, according to Principle Power.

Climate editor Justin Rowlatt on a boat speaking with a man wearing orange high-vis and a white hard hatImage source, BBC/Kevin Church
Image caption, Companies around the world are competing to design floating platforms

It says it can power 35,000 homes.

Competition is stiff. The floating wind platforms are being designed by companies around the world.

$50 million was offered by the US government last month to encourage American companies to install 15GW of floating wind in US waters.

According to the White House, the goal is to drive down costs by 75%.

There is a lot of potential.

According to the Climate Change Committee, half of the 100GW of offshore wind will be installed on floating platforms by the end of the century.

According to estimates by the UK offshore wind industry association, the technology could create up to 29,000 jobs.

The global prospects are better than ever.

80% of the European seabed is accessible using floating technology, and most of the sea off Japan is also deep.

According to RenewableUK, the world's floating wind projects have doubled in the last year.

The global market for floating wind is estimated to be between 400 and 5000 billion dollars by the end of the century.

Cost is the biggest challenge at the moment. The cost of this new technology is high. New nuclear power costs about the same as floating wind.

The expectation is that costs will fall as the market grows.

The price of solar panels has fallen since 2010 as the technology has been rolled out.

Dramatic cost reductions have been achieved by conventional offshore wind.

Investment will be required to deliver on the promise of this new technology.

It requires deep ports with a lot of workspace to make and assemble floating structures.

Oil and gas platforms are usually one-off orders, but floating wind platforms need to be built on a production line.

100 or more platforms will be the largest floating wind farms.

The UK government has promised to invest over one hundred million dollars in the country's port infrastructure.

Although Britain is the first country to successfully deploy floating wind at scale, there are limitations to its ability to harvest the rewards of its efforts.

Boris Johnson wanted the UK to become the "Saudi Arabia of wind", but his claim was always hollow.

Foreign firms own and operate most of the UK's wind farms and most of the UK's turbine factories.

The industry believes that floating wind is an opportunity for the UK.

Dan McGrail is the CEO of Renewable UK and he says that the UK can be masters at everything that is happening in the underground world.

He says it is exciting because it signifies the opening up of offshore wind to the world.

  • Wind power
  • Kincardine
  • Wind turbines
  • Renewable energy
  • Aberdeen