Energy Minister Fergus Ewing has today granted consent for the 370MW Viking wind farm on Shetland.
The wind farm will allow the construction of an interconnector cable between the Shetland Isles and the Scottish mainland, allowing the export of electricity to the national grid. This interconnector is vital for the Aegir wave farm being developed off the west coast of Shetland by Aegir Wave Power, a joint venture between Pelamis Wave Power and Swedish utility Vattenfall.
Aegir Project Development Manager Andrew Scott said:
“This is fantastic news for the future development of our 10MW Aegir Wave Farm, and a big step forward to securing grid connection for marine projects in Shetland.
“Shetland and its communities are blessed with a huge marine renewable resource and we are working towards harnessing some of this energy to create a new exciting industry exporting clean power.”
This news presents a great opportunity for harnessing the rich wave power resource around the Shetland Islands, and we hope to see similar opportunities for securing the required grid connections for other marine power projects in the Western Isles and Orkney.
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Offshore WIND staff, April 04, 2012; Image: pelamiswave