Public Exhibitions - Thank you to those who were able to join us at our recent exhibitions in Arbroath, Montrose and Carnoustie.
The feedback received is, as always, very welcome and can play a significant role in how our projects develop. We have produced a summary of the feedback received at the events:
A key point highlighted is that there is often confusion over the location of the Seagreen project in connection with the coast line, Bell Rock and the other offshore wind farms currently being progressed, i.e. Inchcape (a Red Rock Power Limited development) and Neart Na Gaoithe which was recently acquired by EDF.
The map below shows the location of each of the proposed developments:
Current Progress - The Seagreen project delivery team is currently focussing on submitting an application to Marine Scotland in June 2018 for an optimised scheme which would take advantage of the advances in offshore wind turbine technology since the original consent was granted back in 2014.
If consented, the optimised project would occupy the same area and would be built within the same project boundaries as the current consented Seagreen Alpha and Seagreen Bravo offshore wind farms; fewer, larger wind turbines would be installed in both sites (maximum of 120 wind turbines across both project areas).
Existing Consent - In addition to the above, in April 2018, Seagreen applied to remove the capacity limit on the existing consent. Removing the capacity consented allows the project to use larger capacity machines within the existing consent parameters with no other changes required.
We are also pleased to confirm that following a request to Scottish Ministers to extend the date for development of construction commencement by a further three years; on 29 March 2018 Scottish Ministers granted approval to this request.
Therefore, commencement of the Development (as defined in the original S36 consent) must now be no later than 10 October 2022, or such other period that the Scottish Ministers may direct in writing.
These modifications (if all consented) will help to make sure that we are able to make a competitive Contract for Difference (CfD) bid in March 2019 and take full advantage of the advances in offshore technology.
Next Steps - As the project is expected to bring significant socio-economic benefits to the Scottish economy and local area during construction, including direct positive impacts on employment, with a large number of full time jobs created in construction and subsequent operation the project will also host 'Meet the Supplier' events in the local areas to make sure that local residents and companies are aware of the possible opportunities that the project will present and have a good understanding of how to get involved.
A review is now also underway to identify and establish where the best port location might be for the proposed long term Operations & Maintenance (O&M) Base.