Scottish Renewables, Scottish Enterprise (SE) and Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) have responded to news that the Beatrice offshore wind project reached financial close and will now proceed to construction.
Lindsay Roberts , Senior Policy Manager at Scottish Renewables, said: “Beatrice is the first commercial offshore wind farm to reach this stage of development in Scottish waters. It’s fantastic that the partners in the project will now be moving ahead with construction.
“Scotland has 25% of Europe’s offshore wind resource, and projects like Beatrice are enabling us to capitalise on that in both environmental and economic terms.”
The project is expected to deliver billions of pounds of investment during construction, installation and longer-term operation and maintenance of the wind farm. Both Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise say it will create major opportunities for supply chain companies, and could mean hundreds of long term, new jobs over the off-shore power plant’s 25 year lifetime.
HIE chief executive, Alex Paterson , said: “This is excellent news for the Highlands and Islands. We are proud as a region to have many companies with the commercial and technical flexibility and the capacity to provide specialist and innovative services. The scale of opportunity is extensive and will stretch across our region, and Scotland as whole. It will put us in a prime position to attract and react to future prospects in the industry. We look forward to working with SSE, the sector as a whole, and individual companies, to ensure the best possible economic outcome for the region from this development.”
Margaret McGinlay , director of energy at Scottish Enterprise said: “The confirmation of an investment of this scale marks a significant milestone for Scotland’s offshore wind industry. It has the potential to bring a variety of significant opportunities for economic growth for Scotland, particularly for companies in our offshore wind supply chain. We’ll be continuing to work closely with SSE and our partners on this and other projects to secure the continued development of the sector in Scotland.”