The 588MW Beatrice wind farm off Scotland is expected to generate over £2bn for the UK economy over the lifetime of the project, according to a report published today.
The report was carried out by BiGGAR Economics and commissioned by wind farm owners SSE, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Red Rock Power.
The £2.4 billion figure covers the development, construction and 25-year lifetime operation of the 84-turbine project.
The analysis also showed the project had contributed £460m to the Scottish economy during the development and construction phases, as part of a total £1.3bn contribution to the wider UK economy.
The report said he project expected to add £72m of value to the UK economy on average every year during its lifetime, of which £34m will be in Scotland.
During development and production the project created 19,110 years of employment in the UK and of those 7,180 were in Scotland.
Beatrice is expected will create an average of 800 UK jobs a year during operations – 370 of which will be in Scotland.
“Beatrice will deliver a multi-billion pound boost to the UK economy over its full lifetime, from initial development to the end of its operational life,” said SSE managing director Jim Smith.
“Our experience at Beatrice also provides learnings which SSE Renewables will apply to maximise the expected socio-economic benefits from our 7GW pipeline of future offshore wind projects,” he added.
All of Beatrice’s 7MW Siemens Gamesa turbines are now fully commissioned.
The report found that £2.5 billion had been invested to get the project built, making it the largest private sector investment in Scottish history.
Of that figure 24% was spent in Scotland and 49% in the UK as a whole.