Blame the U.K.’s vote on June 23 to leave the European Union—the Brexit referendum—as well as construction challenges, for a hesitation in the drive to develop lightweight floating foundations for wind turbines sited in deep waters off the coasts of Scotland and England.
“The political situation is very uncertain in Scotland following Brexit,” says Bill Hurley, chairman of Glosten Associates, a naval architecture and marine engineering firm in Seattle and development director of PelaStar, one of two such projects that have been moving toward deployment in England and Scotland. “We’re surfing through political changes and challenges in the initial development of floating wind.”