The application is the first of the Scottish Territorial Waters sites to be submitted for consideration and is the culmination of several years of data collation, environmental studies and consultation.
The application was formally submitted to Marine Scotland, the Scottish government directorate that will process the application, earlier this week. Marine Scotland has now confirmed that the application has been accepted after having gone through its initial checking process.
The wind farm site is situated 13.5 km from the Caithness coast at the nearest point and is approximately 11km north-east of the world’s first deep water wind farm development – the two-turbine (10MW) Beatrice Demonstrator Project.
The Beatrice Demonstrator turbines are owned by SSE and Talisman and have been operational since 2007. The proposals contained within the application are intended to build on the success of the Beatrice Demonstrator Project, and would generate up to 1,000 MW of renewable energy. The proposed wind farm would have a maximum of 142 to 277 turbines, depending on turbine size.
“Offshore wind represents an outstanding resource which, when harnessed, will make a very significant contribution to meeting the EU renewable energy goals for 2020,” commented Jim Smith, Managing Director of SSE Renewables. “This is an important milestone for the project and we look forward to working with the relevant stakeholders to ensure a positive outcome for the application. If the planning application is successful, any final decision to invest in the project is unlikely to be taken before 2014 at the earliest.”
“Offshore wind energy will be critical to delivering the UK’s energy needs in the coming decades and Repsol is committed to being at the heart of this emerging industry,” said Ronnie Bonnar, Managing Director of Repsol Nuevas Energias UK.
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