The Pentland Floating Offshore Wind Farm (PFOWF) consortium has submitted a development consent application to Marine Scotland for the 100 MW Pentland floating wind project.
The floating wind project is being developed by Highland Wind Limited, which is majority-owned by a fund managed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) with Hexicon as a minority shareholder. Project development activities are being led by CIP’s development partner, Copenhagen Offshore Partners (COP).
The application to Marine Scotland is accompanied by an Environmental Impact Assessment Report and a Habitats Regulations Appraisal.
“This is a significant milestone for the project and one which takes us closer to realising the far-reaching benefits it will bring, both in terms of supporting security of energy supply for the domestic UK market and contributing to a sustainable energy mix within UK and Scotland”, said Richard Copeland , Project Director.
Following feedback from stakeholders and the local community, several changes have been made to the final design of the PFOWF to minimise potential visual impacts.
These include reducing the offshore site area for the turbines by 50 per cent and the maximum number of turbines from ten to seven while still delivering the same power of around 100 MW, according to the developers.
Located 7.5 kilometres off the coast of Dounreay in Caithness, Scotland, the project’s goal is to test and demonstrate floating wind technology solutions that will reduce costs and accelerate industrialisation, said Copeland.
He also added that the project will offer learnings to inform the development of future floating projects in Scotland and the UK, such as ScotWind, INTOG, and the Celtic Sea.
Once completed, the Pentland floating offshore wind farm will generate enough electricity to power approximately 70,000 homes – around 64 per cent of those in the Highland Council Area.
At the beginning of this year, the Pentland Floating Offshore Wind Demonstrator was awarded GBP 9.6 million of UK government funding to develop and demonstrate a suite of UK-manufactured innovative floating wind technologies for the first time.
CIP “revived” the project last year, after the Dounreay Trì floating wind farm, initially planned to be developed at the site, was discontinued.