The Highland Council has granted Planning Permission in Principle for the onshore infrastructure of the 100 MW Pentland Floating Offshore Wind Farm (PFOWF) in Scotland.
The developer, Highland Wind Limited, majority owned by a fund managed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) with Hexicon AB as a minority shareholder, submitted the onshore planning application to the Highland Council in the autumn of last year.
This permission provides an ‘in principle’ acceptance of the development and paves the way for the development of export cables and an onshore substation located near HMS Vulcan and Dounreay, which will feed power from the wind farm into the existing grid network, according to the developer.
The approval comes shortly after the Highland Council’s North Planning committee gave the green light for the project’s offshore application.
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Richard Copeland , Project Director, said: “We welcome the Highland Council’s decision to grant the onshore planning permission in principle for Pentland. The project will be the blueprint to advance the deployment of large-scale floating offshore wind in the UK and globally, so this a significant milestone for us as a project and for the industry generally”.
Located 7.5 kilometres off the coast of Dounreay in Caithness, the wind farm will feature Stiesdal Offshore’s TetraSub floating foundation technology and will generate enough electricity to provide clean energy to almost 70,000 homes, once operational.
Highland Wind Limited is targeting commencing construction at the end of this year and having the wind fully operational by 2026.
The project is said to create up to 1,300 full-time equivalent (FTE) supply chain jobs during construction and 85 during operation, and to deliver a lifetime expenditure of GBP 419 million which, according to the developer, is in line with its aim of 40-60 per cent lifetime UK content.
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