A WIND farm 10 miles off the coast of Fife, capable of powering every home in Edinburgh, will be the subject of a formal planning application today.
The £1.4 billion project will involve between 64 and 125 turbines standing in 150ft of water and is known as Neart na Gaoithe, Gaelic for "power of the wind".
Irish company Mainstream Renewable Power says the farm will generate 450 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 325,000 homes, the equivalent of a city the size of Edinburgh or 3.7% of Scottish demand, when it becomes fully operational by the end of 2016.
The North Sea wind farm will cover an area of 40 square miles off the mouth of the Forth Estuary and its nearest point to land will be just in excess of nine miles off Fife Ness.
The company predicts it will created hundreds of jobs directly and indirectly over the 25-year life of the wind farm.
There has already been a three-year process of local consultation, and following today's lodging of application for offshore consent to Marine Scotland there will be a formal six-week consultation period.
Andy Kinsella, chief executive of Mainstream Renewable Power's Offshore Business, said: "This is a major milestone in the delivery of this offshore wind farm.
"With over 7500MW of offshore wind farms in development in the UK and Germany, this demonstrates Mainstream's ability in selecting the best sites, developing to a high standard and delivering to challenging milestones."
Mainstream was founded four years ago by Eddie O'Connor and other Airtricity executives after the company was split and sold off. Based in Dublin, it has operations in the UK, US, Canada, Germany, South Africa and Chile.
The Scottish Government's Strategic Environmental Assessment earmarked the site as one of only six suitable for development in the current Scottish Territorial Waters programme.
Mainstream secured grid connection in 2010 and an Agreement for Lease with The Crown Estate last year.
The grid connection will be via undersea cable to East Lothian and then by fully buried cable to the connection point near another wind farm. Planning permission for this part of the project will be lodged later this year.
Mr Kinsella said: "This project is of strategic importance to Scotland. Not only will it supply a significant percentage of the country's electricity demand, it will also help to deliver Scotland's and the UK's renewable energy targets in advance of 2020."
Dr Sam Gardner, senior climate policy officer at WWF Scotland, said the proposal would have to go through the appropriate checks but praised the benefits of green energy.
"With its expertise in offshore technology, Scotland is very well-placed to embrace offshore wind as a major source of clean energy," he said.
"Offshore wind creates jobs and cuts emissions. It has been estimated that Scotland's offshore wind industry could create 28,000 jobs by 2020 and lead to £7.1bn of investment into the economy. With careful planning, we can harness Scotland's marine renewables potential to help cut our climate emissions while safeguarding the nation's tremendous marine environment."
The latest renewables milestone comes as a poll shows wide Scottish backing for wind power, with only one in five believing there are too many wind farms and 52% supporting the Government's target of generating the equivalent of 100% of domestic electricity consumption through renewables.
SNP MSP Rob Gibson, convener of Holyrood's Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee, said of the survey by pollsters Panelbase: "What this shows quite clearly is that people in Scotland are fully committed to grasping the opportunities that renewable energy offers us.
"It means jobs, it means investment and it will of course help to reduce Scotland's carbon emissions."
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