SSE Renewables and its partner TotalEnergies has announced first power generation from the Seagreen offshore wind farm, 27km off the coast of Angus in Scotland.
The first Vestas turbine of a total of 114 was commissioned and connected to the grid in the early hours of Monday morning. The 1,075 MW wind farm is expected to be fully operational in the first half of 2023.
The £3bn Seagreen project will be Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm and the world’s deepest fixed bottom wind farm with its deepest foundation due to be installed at 59 metres below sea level in December.
Paul Cooley, Director of Global Offshore Wind for SSE Renewables said:
“Seagreen has achieved a number of key milestones to date, but to see this turbine turning in the North Sea and to have reached first power safely, is a fantastic achievement for everyone connected to the project. The project has already brought benefits to the local community, the UK supply chain and, once completed, Seagreen will make a significant contribution to Scotland and the UK’s ambitious renewable energy targets.”
TotalEnergies entered into an agreement with SSE Renewables to acquire a 51% stake in the Seagreen project in June 2020. Seagreen has an installed capacity of 1075 megawatts (MW).
When fully operational, the site will produce around 5 terawatt hours (TWh) of renewable electricity per year, enough to power the equivalent of 1.6 million households.
Vincent Stoquart Senior Vice President Renewables of TotalEnergies said.
“We are delighted to announce the start of power generation from Seagreen, our first offshore wind farm in the UK North Sea. This marks a new step in the development of TotalEnergies’ offshore activities capacity. This milestone will contribute directly to our objective of reaching 35 GW of renewable electricity capacity worldwide by 2025.”
About Seagreen
The 1,075MW Seagreen Offshore Wind Farm project is located 27km off the coast of Angus in the North Sea firth. A £3bn joint venture between TotalEnergies (51%) and SSE Renewables (49%), Seagreen will be Scotland’s largest and the world’s deepest fixed bottom offshore wind farm when complete. Find out more at seagreenwindenergy.com
About SSE Renewables
SSE Renewables is the leading renewable energy developer, owner and operator in the UK and Ireland with plans to expand in selected international markets to deliver the green energy the world needs. Its strategy is to lead the transition to a net zero future through the world-class development, construction and operation of renewable power assets and is building more offshore wind energy than any other company in the world. SSE Renewables is part of SSE plc, the UK-listed integrated energy group which is investing £12.5bn over five years, or £7m a day, to deliver a Net Zero Acceleration Programme to address climate change head on. This includes plans by SSE Renewables to double its installed renewable energy capacity to around 8GW by 2026 and ambitious targets to treble capacity to over 13GW by 2031, increasing output fivefold to over 50TWh annually – enough to be able to power around 20 million homes each year.
TotalEnergies and offshore wind in the UK
Over the past two years TotalEnergies has increased its presence in the UK market, the world leader in offshore wind. In 2020 after taking a majority stake in Seagreen 1, TotalEnergies entered the Erebus (96 MW) and Valorous (300 MW) floating offshore windfarm projects in Wales. In February 2021, TotalEnergies and consortium partner Corio Generation won rights to develop a 1.5 GW offshore wind farm off the coast of Lincolnshire (Outer Dowsing). Finally, in January 2022, TotalEnergies, with Corio Generation and RIDG, secured leasing rights to develop the West of Orkney Windfarm, a 2 GW offshore windfarm in Scotland (Scotwind).