Mainstream Renewable grabs Scottish offshore wind project

Mainstream Renewable Power has been consented by Scottish Ministry to build a 450 megawatt Neart na Gaoithe (NnG) offshore wind farm in the Outer Forth Estuary in the North Sea, reports Domestic Fuel.

The wind farm will consist of up to 75 wind turbines and will provide 3.7 percent of Scotland’s total electricity demand. At its closest point to land it lies over 15 kilometres off the Fife coast.

It will be the first large-scale offshore wind farm project in Scottish waters, which is expected to be grid connected by 2018.

The subsea cable transmitting the wind farm’s power will reach Thorntonloch Beach in East Lothian from where its underground cable will travel along a 12.5 km route to a substation located within the Crystal Rig onshore wind farm in the Lammermuir Hills.

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Grid connection for this purpose will occur in December 2016 and planning permission for underground cable route has been received in 2013 from East Lothian Council.

This announcement is of particular importance for Scotland because it is the first time a wind farm will be built in Scottish waters with the purpose of supplying Scottish homes and businesses with renewable energy. In fact, it will generate enough green power to supply more than all the homes in Edinburgh, explained, Eddie O’Connor, chief executive, Mainstream Renewable Power.

NnG project is expected to have an expenditure of around £1.5 billion and will be the first offshore wind farm in the UK to attract non-recourse project finance at the construction stage. It has been already selected for the Infrastructure UK Treasury Guarantee and European Investment Bank funding.

This is of major significance to the global offshore wind industry because it is on track to be the first time an offshore wind farm of this scale will be built using project finance alone by a private company, noted, Andy Kinsella, COO, Mainstream Renewable Power.

It is testament to the world-leading expertise of Mainstream’s offshore development team who have been working on this project since the company was founded in 2008 and further underpins Mainstream’s position as the world’s leading independent offshore wind developer, continued Kinsella.

Vishal Kawadkar
[email protected]