The offshore consent application for the 100 MW Pentland Floating Offshore Wind Farm (PFOWF) has been approved by the Highland Council’s North Planning committee.
A majority of Councillors agreed that no objection should be raised in relation to the applications under s36 of the Electricity Act and under s20 of the Marine (Scotland) Act as part of Marine Scotland’s consultation process.
The offshore application will now be determined by Marine Scotland.
The next step will be consent for the project’s onshore application which will be heard by Councillors in January 2023.
“This is a major step forward for the project, and we welcome the Highland Council’s decision to raise no objection to our application which will bring significant economic benefits to the local area”, said Richard Copeland , Project Director.
As reported earlier, the goal of the Pentland floating wind farm, which will be located 7.5 kilometres off the coast of Dounreay in Caithness, is to test and demonstrate floating wind technology solutions that will reduce costs and accelerate industrialisation.
The project’s projected lifetime expenditure of GBP 419 million is in line with its 40-60 per cent lifetime UK content aim, the developer says.
Of the total forecast number of jobs the Pentland floating wind farm will create, 1,300 FTE supply chain jobs will be created during construction and 85 FTE during the operation of the floating wind project.
In October, the consortium behind the project announced it had selected Stiesdal Offshore’s TetraSub as the floating foundation technology for the 100 MW wind farm.
The TetraSub floating foundation is said to be the world’s first fully industrialised floating offshore technology, offering a lightweight and cost-effective floating foundation made up of factory-made modules.
If Marine Scotland grants consent, construction is likely to begin in 2024, with the wind farm fully operational by 2026, when it will provide enough green energy for almost 70,000 homes per year.