Scotland Approves Offshore Plans for Massive 2GW Orkney Wind Farm

Image Credit: West of Orkney Windfarm

The Scottish government has officially given the green light to the offshore component of the 2 gigawatt West of Orkney wind farm. This marks a major milestone, making it the first project under the ScotWind initiative to secure both offshore consent and onshore planning approval.

Scottish ministers signed off on the project after receiving a positive recommendation from the Marine Directorate's Licensing Operations Team.

The project is a collaboration between Corio Generation, TotalEnergies, and the Renewables Infrastructure Development Group. Once built, the wind farm will sit about 30 kilometres west of Orkney's mainland and 25 kilometres north of the Sutherland coast. It will feature 25 turbines, each installed on fixed foundations in the seabed.

Back in June 2024, the Highland Council gave provisional approval to the project's onshore elements. These include underground cables and electrical infrastructure necessary to connect the offshore wind farm to the Caithness national grid.

By March 2025, the council confirmed that it had no objections to the offshore planning application, which was then passed to government ministers for a final decision. That application was made under two separate pieces of legislation—the Electricity Act of 1989 and the Marine (Scotland) Act of 2010, and was backed by more than two years of detailed environmental and technical surveys.

Project director Stuart McAuley stated: “The West of Orkney wind farm has the potential to deliver enough renewable electricity to power around two million homes. Its construction would spark significant investment in Scotland’s supply chain, port and harbour infrastructure, and the skilled jobs that would follow.

“We’d like to thank the Scottish government, their officials and all the stakeholders and suppliers who have worked with us so proactively to make this happen.

“The UK government has set out ambitious decarbonisation goals for 2030 and beyond, and our pioneering wind farm, backed by major international investors, can deliver jobs, inward investment and make a significant contribution to the energy transition in Scotland.”

Interestingly, in April 2025, Macquarie decided to halt the planned sale of Corio Generation. The move came in response to tough market conditions and a lack of strong buyer interest across the wider offshore wind sector.