Blog by Sid Anverali, Senior Project Manager at Seagreen Wind Energy Limited
Seagreen Wind Energy Limited is a 50:50 joint venture between, SSE and Fluor. The project originally received consent back in 2014 and is now preparing to bid into the next Contracts for Difference (CfD) auction, anticipated to take place in Spring 2019.
Located 25km offshore from the Angus coastline off the outer Firth of Forth and Firth of Tay, the Seagreen project has the potential to power up to 670,000 homes, providing a significant contribution to Scotland’s renewable energy generation capacity and helping to meet Scotland and the UK’s ambitious renewable energy targets.
Since 2014, offshore wind technology has advanced significantly with larger and more efficient turbines able to generate additional power from Scotland’s excellent wind resource. Seagreen is seeking changes to its offshore planning consent so it can take advantage of these new innovations in turbine technology and deliver offshore wind power at the best value for money for consumers.
SSE and Fluor both already have a positive track record of delivering offshore wind projects. Fluor led the development design and construction of one of the UK’s largest offshore wind projects providing wind turbines, steel structures and other supply chain elements.
Headquartered in the UK, SSE aims to ensure the most favourable outcomes for the UK through investment and supply chain. SSE is a partner in two offshore wind farms, Walney and Greater Gabbard, which have been in operation since 2012 and 2013, respectively.
Currently SSE is involved in the construction of the Beatrice offshore windfarm, of which SSE owns 40%. Beatrice, one of the largest private investments in Scotland, is expected to have a total expenditure of £2.6bn, with around 45% of this investment expected to be in the UK. Beatrice is also expected to add approximately £1.13bn of value to UK GDP of which around £530m would be contributed to the Scottish economy.
Beatrice is expected to have a substantial impact on UK and Scottish jobs with construction investment likely to support more than 18,100 years of full-time employment in the UK, of which around 5,800 would be in Scotland.
Wick, chosen as the long term operational home for Beatrice, is currently undergoing a £15m investment. Work in the harbour area includes the re-purposing of the disused corner of the harbour and the renovation of 200-year-old Thomas Telford buildings which will house the Operations and Maintenance base for the project and up to 90 full-time staff.
The development and construction of Seagreen will seek to recreate the positive impacts expected from Beatrice. Seagreen is predicted to bring significant socio-economic benefits to the Scottish economy and local area during construction, including direct impacts on employment with many full-time jobs created in construction and subsequent operation.
The first step towards creating these benefits is to secure a contract in the Spring 2019 CfD auction to deliver the project in the early to mid-2020s. The Seagreen project team is working hard to develop a competitive bid for the auction and is actively considering supply chain partnerships across all elements of the project.