Scotland's largest offshore wind farm, Seagreen, has begun generating energy

The largest offshore wind farm in Scotland began generating energy on Tuesday morning, it has been announced.

Seagreen, which is located 27km off the Angus coast, is expected to be fully operational in the first half of 2023 and has been in development for over a decade.

SSE Renewables and its partner in the joint operations, TotalEnergies, announced the first power generation from Seagreen.

The first of 114 turbines was commissioned and connected to the grid in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The 1,075 megawatt (MW) wind farm is expected to be fully operational in the first half of 2023.

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.

As well as being Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm, SSE say that the £3bn Seagreen project will also be 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 at 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.”

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.”

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