‘Major milestone’ for Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm

SSE Renewables has confirmed that the first turbine has now been installed at the Seagreen offshore wind farm in Scotland.

The 1.1GW Seagreen site will become Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm.

It marks the start of the turbine installation phase at the £3 billion Seagreen development, which will become the largest wind farm in Scotland and the world’s deepest fixed bottom site once complete.

According to SSE Renewarbles, the 1.1GW wind farm will be capable of generating around 5,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) of green energy annually – enough to power more than 1.6 million UK homes.

The turbine, which was manufactured by Danish specialist Vestas Wind Systems, was installed on a giant 2,000 tonne three-legged caisson jacket foundation, fixed to the bottom of the North Sea floor.

Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm
Paul Cooley, director of capital projects at SSE Renewables, said, “Installing the first turbine at any offshore project is a really important milestone but when that turbine is also the first of its type to be installed anywhere in the world, it makes even more exciting.”

A total of 114 Vestas turbines will be installed at Seagreen, which is situated about 16 miles off the coast of Angus in the north east of Scotland, with full commissioning expected in 2023.

“Once operational, the Vestas V164-10.0 MW turbines at Seagreen will be the most powerful offshore turbines in Europe, generating 1.1GW of installed renewable energy at what will be Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm installed on the world’s deepest fixed bottom turbines,” said Cooley.

SSE Renewables is constructing Seagreen as part of a joint venture project with oil company TotalEnergies, and will operate the facility for the duration of its expected 25-year lifetime. 

Philippe de Cacqueray, head of offshore wind UK at TotalEnergies, said, “TotalEnergies is very pleased to see the first turbine installed on the Seagreen project.

“As a company that is working towards net-zero and investing in Scotland in order to reach that ambition, reaching this important milestone shows that we are making good progress.”

“By the end of next year we expect that all of Seagreen’s turbines will be in place, ready to start providing homes and businesses across the country with renewable power,” said de Cacqueray.