Council backing secured for West of Orkney Windfarm

Orkney Island Council (OIC) has given its support to the West of Orkney Windfarm consortium’s offshore development plans.

The Council’s Development and Infrastructure Committee declared its support for the plans in a meeting held earlier this week.

OIC is a statutory consultee for Section 36 consent and marine licence applications for the proposed multi-billion pound offshore windfarm.

Submitted to Scottish Ministers for consideration, the wind farm’s offshore plans contain detailed information on how the windfarm will be constructed.

It includes the proposed location of turbines and cable routes as well as environmental assessments for the 2GW ScotWind project.

The West of Orkney Windfarm will include up to 125 turbines on fixed foundations and aims to deliver first power in 2029.

A joint venture comprising Corio Generation, TotalEnergies and Renewable Infrastructure Development Group (RIDG) is developing the project.

West of Orkney developers welcome council support

West of Orkney Windfarm development manager Jack Farnham said the developers welcomed the support from OIC.

“We have been working closely with the community and businesses in Orkney for a number of years to ensure our ambitious project will bring positive, long-term benefits to Orkney, Caithness and Sutherland and we are extremely grateful to the officials and elected representatives of the council for their endorsement of our detailed plans,” Mr Farnham said.

© Supplied by Neil Davidson

Last year, the West of Orkney Windfarm became the first ScotWind project to submit its consent documents.

Mr Farnham said securing timely consent for the project is “critical” to meeting Scotland’s target of deploying up to 11GW of offshore wind by 2030.

“As the first ScotWind project to enter the planning process, securing timely offshore consent from the Scottish Government and onshore planning permission from The Highland Council will be critical if Scotland is to meet this target, which will unlock significant inward investment and with it economic and social benefits to the far north,” he said.

The West of Orkney developers have supported a number of supply chain and innovation initiatives to secure community backing for the project, which Scottish government representatives have said is “crucial” for obtaining consent.