Aberdeenshire Council Greenlights Onshore Plans for 1 GW Scottish Floating Wind Project

The Buchan Offshore Wind consortium, comprising BayWa r.e., Elicio, and BW Ideol, has received planning consent from Aberdeenshire Council for the onshore infrastructure that will connect the proposed 1 GW Buchan floating wind farm to the grid.

The consortium submitted the onshore planning application in October 2025.

The approval for the onshore portion of the project, granted by the council’s Infrastructure Services Committee on 14 May, covers the onshore electrical infrastructure required to connect the floating offshore wind farm to the national transmission network at the existing Peterhead substation. This includes a landfall at Rattray Head and an approximately 20-kilometre underground cable route to a new project substation near Peterhead.

The Buchan Offshore Wind consortium said it would now progress the next stages of development and consenting, with the project targeting connection to the grid in the early 2030s.

The floating offshore wind farm is proposed to be built at a site located around 75 kilometres northeast of Fraserburgh, where up to 70 wind turbines mounted on BW Ideol’s concrete Damping Pool floating substructures are planned to be installed.

An offshore consent application for the wind farm was submitted to the Scottish government in August 2025, with a decision expected later this year.

Aberdeenshire Council’s Infrastructure Services Committee granted onshore planning consent for the Buchan project on the same day it approved the onshore cable corridor for Ocean Winds’ 2 GW Caledonia offshore wind farm, whose substation was approved separately earlier.