News

Scotland’s biggest offshore wind farm has begun generating power.

Seagreen, which is located about 27km (17 miles) off the Angus coast in the North Sea, has been in development for more than a decade.

When fully operational, it will have 114 turbines and generate 1.1 gigawatts (GW) of electricity – enough to power about one million homes.

Each will have a maximum tip height of 187m (614ft), which is about twice the height of the tower housing Big Ben.

Seagreen is also the deepest wind farm to be fixed to the seabed in the world.

The £3bn project is a joint operation between SSE Renewables and TotalEnergies, and it is expected to be completed next year.

The companies say it will eventually displace more than two million tonnes of carbon dioxide from electricity generated by fossil fuels every year.

At the peak of its construction, the project is expected to support about 3,000 jobs directly and indirectly.

The turbines’ jackets – or foundations – were assembled at the Port of Nigg on the Cromarty Firth.

When it is operational, the wind farm will support about 700 jobs, with about half based in Scotland.

Scotland currently has around 1.9GW of offshore wind installed, according to Scottish Renewables.

However, the Scottish government has set a a target of increasing this to 11GW by 2030.

On Monday, the government announced wind farm agreements for three new developments in the waters around Shetland.

The projects are expected to generate a total of 2.8GW of electricity.

See the full story on the BBC website.