Scotland just became home to a new offshore wind project after a decade of no activity along its shoreline. Crown Estate Scotland, the entity that manages the seabed, announced the project would have an investment value of eight billion pounds.

With 10 sites under consideration, the ScotWind farm will be located along the eastern and northern coasts. Once completed, it will add thousands of jobs to the economy. And result in the elimination of six million tons of CO2 every year.

The wind farm is expected to close bidding by March 2021. It may spend at least five years in the design phase. However, once complete, the 10GW capacity could potentially light up every household in Scotland.

Now, that’s something worth opening the seabed for!

Scotland’s Renewable Energy Landscape

Interestingly, the Scottish waters have always been ideal sites for offshore wind projects. The Beatrice Offshore Farm is the second largest wind project for the island nation. Located off the coast of Wick, it’s home to 84 turbines. Beatrice powers 450,000 units with mammoth towers rotating to high speed winds.

According to a report by Business Energy & Industry Strategy UK, wind projects make up 8,357MWs of the total 11,891MW renewable capacity in the country. Within, 1650MWs of Hydro, and 981MWs of offshore wind represent the biggest chunks.

Hence, many more projects like the ScotWind Farm are in the pipeline to give Scotland a ‘new’ start post pandemic.

Consequently, the way forward for this clean power hub will again be collaboration – between agencies, industries, and businesses.

With a number of green avenues opening up, Scotland should be ready to maximize the benefits it can gain from large scale renewable energy investments.