Opening of the largest offshore wind farm in Scotland

The largest offshore wind farm in Scotland will be officially inaugurated by Prince Charles later.

The Beatrice Offshore wind farm, located about 13 km offshore from Wick, in the far north of the country, can generate enough energy to power 450,000 homes.

The £ 2.65 billion project, involving 84 huge turbines, was fully put online in May and reached 588 MW of electricity.

It is the largest source of renewable energy in Scotland.

The development, construction and operation were led by SSE Renewables as part of a joint venture with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Red Rock Power Limited.

Construction began in May 2016 and the SSE stated that it had been completed on time and within budget of £ 100 million.

Part of the project involved the redevelopment of the Wick buildings in Caithness, where approximately 90 people will be operating and maintaining the wind farm over its 25 years of life.

Prince Charles, known in Scotland as the Duke of Rothesay, will visit the offices of Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Limited and SSE Renewables in Wick to mark the official opening.

The two harbor buildings used for the Wick base were originally designed by the famous Scottish architect Thomas Telford for use in the herring industry.

The electricity generated by Béatrice goes through submarine and underground cables before landing near Keith at Moray and connecting to the Blackhillock substation.

"Really stunning"

Claire Mack, Executive Director of Scottish Renewables, said the scale of the project was "truly stunning".

"Scotland has a quarter of Europe's offshore wind resources and Beatrice is one of the first steps to exploit it," she said.

"As our offshore wind projects develop, we will see the environmental and economic benefits of offshore wind power growing across Scotland, with jobs and investments transforming communities, such as they already are at Wick. "

She added: "With the appropriate support of the government, a competitive supply chain in terms of price, quality and deadlines and the commitment of the industry, offshore wind power. has a bright future in Scotland as we work to address the world's toughest climate change, goals and building an energy system that is based on renewable energy. "

The Beatrice project is the fourth largest offshore wind farm in the world, with only two projects in England and one in the Netherlands generating more energy.

However, Beatrice Bay is built in deeper waters, with sheath foundations each weighing approximately 1,000 tonnes at depths of up to 56 m.

Earlier this month, it was announced that wind power generation in Scotland reached a record in the first six months of 2019.

Weather Energy has calculated that the energy produced by the turbines could power every home in Scotland and in a northern part of England.

The WWF Scotland has described this trend as a "wind energy revolution".