Scotland’s biggest offshore wind farm officially opens

588 MW Beatrice offshore wind farm in the Outer Moray Firth - the world’s fourth largest offshore wind farm – and Scotland’s biggest – has been officially opened yesterday.

The wind farm was officially opened by HRH The Prince Charles, The Duke of Rothesay.

Situated in the North Sea, 13km off the coast of Caithness, Beatrice’s 84 turbines provided by Siemens Gamesa will generate 588MW of energy – enough to power 450,000 homes every year – and save around 8m tonnes of carbon emissions over its expected 25-year lifetime operation, playing a crucial role in the UK’s efforts to combat climate change.

The GBP 2.5 billion (USD 3.1 billion) Beatrice project is the largest ever single private investment in Scotland and was developed by Scottish-headquartered energy firm, SSE Renewables (40%), with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (35%) and Red Rock Power Limited (25%).

Construction of the wind farm, Scotland’s single largest source of renewable energy, has provided a GBP 2.4 billion (USD 2.9 billion) economic boost to the UK, of which GBP 1 billion (USD 1.2 billion) went directly to Scotland, supporting 19,110 years of employment in the UK during the development and construction phases, of which 7,180 were in Scotland.

Beatrice first started development 10 years ago with construction, led by SSE Renewables, taking just over two years.

SSE Renewables will operate the project, which will support up to 90 long-term jobs – from offshore technicians to office administrators – with the majority based in the rural community of Wick.