The Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm now known as Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Ltd (BOWL) project, is an offshore wind farm close to the Beatrice oil field in the

Moray Firth The Moray Firth (; , or ) is a roughly triangular inlet (or firth) of the North Sea, north and east of Inverness, which is in the Highland council area of the north of Scotland. It is the largest firth in Scotland, stretching from Duncans ...

, part of the

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13 km off the north east coast of

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

History

Evaluation project

Beatrice Wind Farm Demonstrator Project was a joint venture between Scottish and Southern Energy and Talisman Energy (UK) to build and operate an evaluation

wind farm A wind farm, also called a wind park or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an exten ...

in the deep water close to the Beatrice Oil field that Talisman Energy was planning to decommission. Built in 2007, with two turbines and a total capacity of 10 MW, it was designed to examine the feasibility of building a commercial wind farm in deep water. The jacket foundation design was developed by the Norwegian company OWEC Tower AS, and fabricated in Scotland by Burntisland Fabrications. The site is 13 km from the Scottish coast and in 45 m of water. The evaluation project was proposed to last five years. All the electricity generated was fed to the nearby Beatrice Alpha oil platform. The oilfield ceased operations in March 2015, and the demonstrator wind farm is expected to be decommissioned between 2024 and 2027.

Planned expansion

In February 2009, the partnership of SSE Renewables and

Repsol Repsol S.A.
El Nuevo Herald, 2012-05-31Originally an init ...

Nuevas Energias UK, was awarded exclusivity by The Crown Estate to develop the Beatrice offshore wind farm in the Outer Moray Firth just to the north of the existing demonstrator turbines. In April 2014, the UK Energy Secretary

Ed Davey Sir Edward Jonathan Davey (born 25 December 1965) is a British politician who has served as the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, leader of the Liberal Democrat party since 2020. He served in the Cameron–Clegg coalition as Secretary of State ...

announced that the Beatrice Wind Farm would be one of eight projects awarded a

contract for difference In finance, a contract for difference (CFD) is a financial agreement between two parties, commonly referred to as the "buyer" and the "seller." The contract stipulates that the buyer will pay the seller the difference between the current value o ...

to set the price paid for its power for the next 15 years. On 23 May 2016 approval was given for a £2.6bn expansion of the wind farm to 84 turbines with a capacity of 588MW of electricity, enough to supply 450,000 homes. In June 2016 contracts were awarded to the Global Energy Group, in association with

Siemens Wind Power Siemens AG ( ) is a German Multinational corporation, multinational technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It is focused on Industrial control system, industrial automation, Building automation , building automation, rail transport a ...

, for fabrication and assembly of the turbines at Nigg Energy Park in Ross Shire, and to Wick Harbour for the assembly and transport process. Several other Highland towns are expected to benefit during the construction phase due to the expected influx of workers. Work began in April 2017.

Construction and grid connection

Offshore construction began in April 2017. As of 15 May 2018, 56 of the total 84 turbine and 2 OTM jackets had been installed, first power from the main phase was generated in July 2018, with full commissioning expected to follow in spring 2019. In January 2019, the wind farm was connected to the new Caithness - Moray Link. The high voltage direct current link enables power generated at Beatrice and other projects to be sent to high population areas in southern Scotland. The link which runs from

Caithness Caithness (; ; ) is a Shires of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area of Scotland. There are two towns, being Wick, Caithness, Wick, which was the county town, and Thurso. The count ...

to Moray, which comes ashore at Portgordon in Moray, is connected to the new Beatrice/BOWL thence to Blackhillock Substation near Keith in Moray, the UK's biggest electricity substation as of January 2019. Installation and commissioning for all 84 turbines was completed on 15 May 2019.

Controversy

In October 2018 details emerged that migrant workers were being used increasingly in the construction phase. It came out that 11 Russian Workers were arrested at Aberdeen Airport in 2017 as they were working illegally on Seafarers documents. In an unexpected move, the UK

Home Office The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...

granted a 6-month waiver so that the crew could continue to work. This has been extended twice until 2019.

References

External links

LORC Knowledge - Datasheet for Beatrice Wind Farm
{{Authority control Wind farms in Scotland Offshore wind farms in the North Sea 2007 establishments in Scotland