Scottish Ministers have approved a variation application to refine the Pentland floating offshore wind farm’s offshore consents. The variation includes a reduction in the number of turbines, which will be deployed within a smaller area while maintaining 100 MW capacity.
Pentland floating offshore wind farm is being developed by Highland Wind Limited which is majority-owned by a fund managed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) with Hexicon AB as a minority shareholder.
Project development activities are being led by CIP’s development partner, Copenhagen Offshore Partners (COP).
The variation application was submitted after further survey work and advancements in project design allowed the proposals to be refined.
“The Pentland project will pioneer a number of innovative technologies enabling the industrialisation of floating offshore wind along with delivering significant benefits to the local economy. We now have all key development requirements in place and are ready to move forward,” said Richard Copeland , Project Director.
“Throughout the consent process we have prioritised sustainability, with the goal of minimising any negative environmental impacts of the project. We are confident this refined design is future proof and ensures we can deliver the same benefit to the local community, and Scotland’s energy sector, while further reducing the project’s environmental impacts.”
This is not the first time that the number of turbines has been reduced for the floating offshore wind project.
In July 2022, the Pentland Floating Offshore Wind consortium decided to reduce the area of the floating wind farm site by half and the number of turbines being installed from ten to seven.
Located 7.5 kilometres off the coast of Dounreay in Caithness, the wind farm will feature Stiesdal Offshore’s TetraSub floating foundation technology.
Once completed, the project will be capable of providing renewable energy to approximately 70,000 homes, equivalent to around 65 per cent of homes in the Highland Local Council Area (based on 2020 figures).