Billions of pounds of offshore wind projects to be determined

The fate of billions of pounds worth of renewables projects will be determined today as the results of the third offshore wind auction round are announced.

The UK Government will inform a number of huge wind farm projects planned in the Scottish North Sea whether their Contracts for Difference (CfD) bids have been successful.

The CfD scheme determines the sum the government will pay per megawatt of electricity produced by the project.

The clean energy contract lasts for up to 15 years.

SSE Renewables’ 1.5 gigawatt (GW) Seagreen Wind Farm, EDP Renewables’ 850 megawatt (MW) Moray West Offshore Wind Farm and Red Rock Power’s 784 MW Inch Cape Wind Farm are all competing for a contract.

Shetland’s 457MW Viking Wind Farm is also competing for the right to build a 103-turbine onshore development.

The auction also includes a number of smaller remote island projects.

The giant Moray Firth wind project could create 150 jobs and add £90 million to the local economy.

The Moray West Offshore Windfarm aims to deploy 90 turbines off the coast of the Moray Firth, which could provide power for more than 900,000 homes.

Once constructed, the 120-turbine Seagreen Wind Farm development will look to generate a capacity of more than one gigawatt (GW), making it the largest energy generating wind farm in Scotland to date.

Plans submitted to Marine Scotland show the development will sit less than 20 miles off the coast of Montrose.

Planned nine miles off the Angus coastline, the Inch Cape offshore wind development is 100% owned by Red Rock Power through Chinese investment firm SDIC Power Holdings, which also bankrolled 25% of the Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm.

If successful, Scottish offshore and onshore wind projects have the potential to add more than 3GW of power to the grid.

Scottish renewable energy projects either in planning or already consented currently total more than 12GW.

The met mast at Inch Cape offshore wind Farm.