Offshore wind farm project sees EDF Renewables expanding capital office

● Move to take staff at Atria One over 100 comes at ‘exciting time’ for the division

EDF Renewables in the UK has opened an extension to its existing office in Edinburgh to accommodate 60 new jobs created for an offshore wind farm project.

Finance Secretary Derek Mackay marked the official opening yesterday, with the expansion related to the Neart Na Gaoithe (NNG) site taking the company’ s Edinburgh team from 44 to more than 100 at the Atria One building in the Scottish capital.

There new ablesspecia list added that a large number of the new team members have a particular focus on the NNG offshore wind farm that is expected to begin construction later this year, located 15.5 kilometres off the Fife coast.

NNG has a capacity of up to 450 megawatts (MW) of low carbon energy, providing enough electricity to power more than 375,000 Scottish homes, and forecast to offset more than 400,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year.

EDF Renewables calls itself one of the UK’S leading renewable energy companies developing, building and operating energy generation projects with a focus on onshore and offshore wind as well as batter y storage and other new technologies. It also said that in Scotland there are now eight onshore wind farms with a capacity of about 500 MW.

The latest announcement comes on the back of ED F Re new ables’ D ore nell Onshore Wind Farm in Moray being commissioned in March this year. This project has a capacity of 177 MW and is the largest onshore wind farm in Europe for EDF Renewables.

Matthieu Hue, chief executive of EDF Renewables in the UK, said it is an “exciting time” for the business, with the latest news “another example of our continued commitment to Scotland”.

He added: “We continue to actively seek routes-to-mark et for on shore projects in Scotland as well as looking at more opportunities for offshore wind and battery storage. We are focused on our remote island wind project in Stornoway and have more than 2 [gigawatts] of projects in our development pipeline.”

Mackay said the Edinburgh expansion by EDF “shows its strong commitment to investing in S cotland and reflects the value of our huge natural resources and our progressive and pro-business policies”.

“Projects like the Near t na Gaoithe offshore wind farm will add to what is a growing industr y fo r S cotland, with huge potential for further economic b enefit and job creation. The Scottish Government is determined the supply chain and economic benefits of this industry will be fully realised.”