Offshore windfarm off Scottish islands with turbines 'bigger than Eiffel Tower' wins support

West of Orkney Windfarm has reached “another milestone”.

One of Scotland’s largest offshore windfarms - which will bring 125 turbines taller than the Eiffel Tower to waters off Orkney - is a step closer to being approved.

The West of Orkney Wind Farm will sit 31 miles north west of Thurso and around 18 miles off the west of Orkney and generate enough electricity to power two million homes, developers claim.

The turbines will have a blade tip height of up to 360-metres, making them 30 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower.

Now, Highland Council - the last statutory consultee to respond to the proposals - has raised no objection to the plans, which will be decided by Scottish ministers.

Orkney Islands Council earlier gave their support to the renewable energy project.

Jack Farnham, West of Orkney Windfarm Development Manager, said the decision from Highland Council was “another milestone” in the project, which could be under construction by 2028 and operational by 2030.

He added: “This is another important milestone for the West of Orkney Windfarm, and we are grateful to The Highland Council for their support.

READ MORE: Scottish island ‘sarcrificed’ to windfarm developers with 130 turbines in pipeline

“The West of Orkney Windfarm is a major energy infrastructure scheme which can bring significant long-term economic benefits to the north of Scotland and beyond. We will continue to work on achieving the critical remaining project milestones in order to generate clean power by 2030.”

Highland Council has also already approved the onshore elements of the development, which will run five export cables to Caithness and bring a new sub-station to Spittal near Wick.

The West of Orkney Windfarm, which will generate up to 2GW of power, outstrips the scale of Scotland’s largest operational offshore windfarm, Seagreens, off the coast of Angus and Aberdeenshire, which has 114 turbines and a capacity of 1.1 GW.

However, Berwick Bank in the Outer Firth of Forth, which is currently seeking consent, will deliver up to 4.1 GW of electricity from more up to 307 turbines, if approved.

NatureScot requested further information from West of Orkney developers to allow it to assess the impact of the wind farm on offshore ornithology, marine mammals, benthic and fish and shellfish interests.

It found West Orkney as a standalone development posed no significant impact on seabirds but found “significant” cumulative effects on the collision risk and displacement of gannets, great black-backed gulls, kittiwakes and razorbills when taking the Berwick Bank development into account.

The multi-billion pound West Orkney project is being developed by Corio Generation, which is owned by Australian investment bank Macquarie Group, France’s TotalEnergies and the Renewable Infrastructure Development Group (RIDG).

The final decision on the offshore consent will be now made by Scottish Ministers following recommendations by the Marine Directorate Licensing Operations Team (MD-LOT) and taking into account comments made by consultees.

The developer has already supported a number of initiatives in the north of Scotland, including a £1 million research and development programme being led by European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney and a £900,000 education initiative led by University of the Highlands and Islands.