It is among the windiest countries in Europe where 100mph gusts regularly batter the coastline, making it the ideal place to harness the power of nature.
Now it has been announced that the Moray Firth will be home to a new multi-billion pound windfarm which will provide almost a million homes with electricity by 2022.
The site, which is 25 miles from the Caithness coast, will initially have 100 turbines, adding to the already substantial amount of renewable energy which Scotland produces.
And the project, which has been in development since 2010, will generate enough power to meet the energy requirements for 950,000 households - the equivalent of 38 per cent of Scottish homes.
Stretching over almost 300 square kilometers and estimated to cost up to £3 billion, it will be one of the largest and most powerful offshore windfarms in the UK.
Since being given the go-ahead it is now one of several windfarms part of the ‘Round 3’ initiative, which is the biggest offshore wind programme in the world.
Eventually, the huge array, which is being developed in three separate stages, will have around 370 turbines, producing enough power for more than three million homes.
Moray East Board Director Dan Finch said: “Moray East marks a major milestone in the progress of the offshore wind industry.
"Not only will it deliver plentiful, sustainable, renewable power, it will do so at a highly competitive price – to the economic advantage of both the household and the country.
“Offshore windfarms pay rent for the use of the sea bed – and last week we made our first payment of £6m to The Crown Estate (Scotland) – so the country is already benefitting before we have even produced a single unit of power.
“Last month we announced The Port of Cromarty Firth will be used as the project’s intermediate port during construction, and in the long term, we announced in summer that Fraserburgh will be the operations and maintenance base for the lifetime of the windfarm.
“Throughout the development process we have worked with local and national stakeholders to enable advantage to be taken of the new opportunities brought by offshore wind.
“We are grateful to all those who have engaged with us to take the project to this point and look forward to continuing to work with them through the construction, delivery and operation which will enable those opportunities to be realised."
The project is expected to create hundreds of jobs across Scotland, with most of those focused around Fraserburgh in Aberdeenshire and Cromarty.
The turbines will be built by Danish firm Vesta, with maintenance yards at Cromarty and Fraserburgh.
In addition to jobs and opportunities for local companies during construction, many of the jobs will remain for the maintenance of the huge turbines.
Banffshire and Buchan Coast MSP Stewart Stevenson said: “Fraserburgh will make a fantastic location as the operations and maintenance base for this project.
“The North-East has become a leader in the development of offshore wind from the Moray East project to a number of others in the area.
“Scotland is working hard towards its goal of being a low-carbon economy and improving emissions levels to help in our fight against climate change.
“Investment in the local area will bring a welcome boost to the local economy and I look forward the project’s completion in the future.”
It is not the first windfarm to be built in the Moray Firth.
The newly announced scheme comes after the ‘Beatrice’ wind farm, which is due to start operating next year, becoming Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm.
Since 2010 with the completion of Scotland’s first offshore wind farm, at the Solway Firth, the country has continued to expand its renewable energy initiatives such as tidal and solar power.
The Scottish Government is aiming to have renewable sources to generate 100 per cent of its electricity by 2020.
Ministers maintain that they are ‘on track’ for this target after the nation got more than two-thirds – 68.1 percent – of its electricity from green schemes last year.
Energy and Clean Growth Minister Claire Perry said the massive scheme would help create the "green-collar jobs of the future".
“The UK is a world leader in the offshore wind sector, creating the right environment to attract inward investment from forward-thinking firms to boost local jobs and growth and create clean, green energy," she said.
“I now look forward to seeing even further growth in the sector as we tackle climate change, implement our modern Industrial Strategy and create the green-collar jobs of the future through our upcoming ambitious offshore wind sector deal.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel