Construction milestone for £2.6 billion Beatrice array

A major milestone in the construction of Scotland’s largest offshore wind array has been reached with the installation of the first turbine foundation piles.

The £2.6 billion Beatrice array in the outer Moray Firth is one of the largest private infrastructure investments ever made in Scotland.

The wind farm is jointly owned by Perth-based SSE (40%), Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (35%)and SDIC, which holds the remaining 25% interest.

The first eight piles to ship to site were prepared at Fife fabricator BiFab’s Arnish yard.

Noel Cummins, SSE’s major projects liaison manager, said progress was being made on all aspects of the Beatrice project.

“Renovation of the iconic Thomas Telford buildings in Wick, which will become our long term operations and maintenance base, is well underway and offshore construction began this weekend, culminating in the successful installation of the first cluster of foundation piles,” Mr Cummins said.

“In Moray, we’re also making good progress at our substation in Blackhillock and at our works along the export cable route from near Portgordon to the Blackhillock substation.”