Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Hexicon have filed an application for consent to build and operate the 100MW Pentland floating offshore wind farm off the north coast of Scotland.
The developers are seeking permission from Marine Scotland for up to seven turbines and floating substructures 7.5km off Dounreay, Caithness.
Each floating substructure will comprise nine moorings as well as nine anchors or piles.
The project will also comprise up to two offshore export cables with associated scour and cable protection.
Construction is expected to begin in 2024 and begin operations by the end of 2026. Once commissioned, the operational life of the wind farm will be 30 years.
CIP and Hexicon have also filed an environmental impact assessment for the floater, which found that potential disturbance to seabirds due to construction noise or physical presence of vessels were “not significant”.
However, it found that a low number of collision mortalities for some bird species may occur due to turbine collisions during operations.
It also found that any disturbance or disruption to the SHE Transmission Orkney-Caithness project would be “temporary and highly localised”, and that Pentland is not expected to overlap with the launch exclusion zone for the Space Hub Sutherland Project “at the time of writing”.
A habitats regulation appraisal has also been submitted, prepares on behalf of the developers by Xodus Group to support the planning application.