The last of 84 wind turbines was commissioned last month in the Outer Moray Firth at Beatrice Offshore Windfarm — Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm, which has taken three years to construct.

Beatrice is a joint-venture development led by SSE Renewables (40%), Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (35%) and
Red Rock Power Ltd (25%).

The final 7MW Siemens Gamesa turbine installed around 13km off the coast of Caithness brings the site’s total installed capacity to 588MW, which is enough to power over 450,000 homes.

Jim Smith, SSE Renewables managing director, said (www.sse.com): “Completing the offshore construction at Beatrice is a testament to the capabilities of SSE Renewables and our project partners.

“Delivering one of Scotland’s largest-ever private investments on time and under budget is a fantastic achievement — given its complexity — and we would like to thank everyone who has helped us make the project a reality.”

At 188m from sea level to blade tip, each of Beatrice’s 84 turbines stands taller than the London Eye, and Beatrice is the largest offshore wind farm in the world to use jacket foundations.

These jackets weigh around 1,000 tonnes each, and they are the deepest-water fixed foundations of any wind farm in the world, installed in water over 56m deep.

Mr Smith added: “SSE Renewables has been involved in the offshore wind industry for 15 years now.

“We will take what we have learnt from Beatrice and apply it as we look to develop over 7GW of offshore wind projects across the UK and Ireland.”