Offshore Wind

Major Boost for Highlands and Islands
World First – and Tallest – Demonstration Project

Introduction

Offshore renewables offer Scotland a significant opportunity for economic growth and will help reinvigorate some of our more fragile and remote communities.

Meanwhile, the world’s first deepwater offshore wind project is operating some 15 miles off Caithness, in 45 metres of North Sea.

Major Boost for Highlands and Islands

The Highlands and Islands of Scotland is well placed to capture a significant share of the multi-billion pound offshore wind market, and with the UK being the world leader with over 3.6GW already installed, now is the time to seize the opportunity.

The Highlands and Islands is already home to the Beatrice Wind Farm Demonstrator Project in the Moray Firth - the world’s first deep water offshore development.

The Crown Estate has undertaken a number of leasing rounds for offshore wind in UK waters. E.ON’s fully commissioned 180MW wind site in the Solway Firth, Robin Rigg, was built under Round 1 and further leasing rounds in Scottish Territorial Waters and under Round 3 could see the construction of up to five further projects in Scotland. These will have a maximum capacity of up to 4GW – nearly half of which could be in the waters around the Highlands and Islands.

UK Round 3 Developments Add to Momentum

In March 2014 the Scottish Government granted formal consent for the two offshore wind farms in the outer Moray Firth – Beatrice (BOWL) and Moray (MORL).

These consents mark a key milestone in the new age of renewable energy for the Highlands and Islands and for Scotland.

They provide the green light to billions of pounds worth of investment in planning, construction and installation services needed to deliver these projects.

The developers have now moved forward with their supply chain plans and it is expected that the Beatrice project will start construction in 2018, with ports in the Cromarty Firth being the base for development, and Wick Harbour in Caithness being the Operations and Maintenance base. The Moray project is bidding to the UK government for a support (CfD) contract in 2016.

World First – and Tallest – Demonstration Project

The world’s first deepwater offshore wind project is operating close by the Round 3 Moray Firth Zone, some 15 miles off Caithness, in 45 metres of water.

The £29 million private/public Talisman Beatrice Windfarm demonstrator project has seen the design, construction, installation and operation of two 5 megawatt turbines, the world’s tallest at 234.5 metres from seabed to blade tip. Linked by subsea cable to the nearby Beatrice Alpha platform, they are generating 30% of the Beatrice Alpha oil platform’s 14MW daily electricity requirement.

Isleburn, a locally-based full-service engineering company and part of the Global Energy Group, assembled the turbines at Nigg, which is an industrial facility formerly famous for producing platforms for the oil and gas industry. The jacket foundations were provided by BiFab, and the towers were rolled at the Arnish Yard on the Isle of Lewis.