Inch Cape Offshore Wind Farm Readies for Giant Turbines

Inch Cape Offshore Limited (ICOL) has submitted a scoping report for the revised 784MW Inch Cape offshore wind farm to the Scottish Ministers.

The revised design sees a reduction in the number of turbines of more than a third, from up to 110 to a maximum of 72.

The turbines will also rise in height from 215 metres to up to 301 metres, and have a rotor diameter of up to 250 metres, ICOL said.

The application also sees refinement in the design across a number for areas, such as reducing the number of offshore export cables from six to two.

These changes aim to minimise predicted environmental impacts whilst ensuring that the project continues to make a significant contribution to renewable energy targets and addressing climate change, according to ICOL.

The submission of the scoping report starts the formal process for a new application for a revised project design.

It requests the scoping opinion from the Scottish Minsters on what information should be included and assessed in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the revised Inch Cape wind farm.

The process to revise the design will continue over the coming months with the involvement of all stakeholders and a new application is expected to be submitted late in 2017, ICOL said.

The proposed Inch Cape offshore wind farm is located in the North Sea around 15 kilometres off the Angus coastline. The site covers an area of approximately 150 km2.

The project is currently under development and is expected to enter construction in 2020.

ICOL is 100% owned by Red Rock Power, an Edinburgh-based company which is in turn owned by China’s SDIC Power Holdings.