A Fife-headquartered fabrication company said a contract for wind turbine jackets and piles had enabled it to hire 71 more workers at its site on the Isle of Lewis.
Burntisland Fabrications (BiFab) was awarded a £2million contract for Beatrice Offshore Windfarm project and started work in Arnish in October.
BiFab said the deal had also safeguarded 200 jobs across its three bases – in Arnish, Burntisland and Methil.
Martin Adam, BiFab’s operations director, said: “The award of the Beatrice Offshore Windfarm work scope to Bifab has meant Arnish and local economy have now benefited from an increase of 71 well-paid jobs, which has come at a seasonal time of high costs due to winter climate and festive expenditure. The increase in work will also go some way in lessening the impact on the local economy of jobs lost in the offshore sector.
Work will continue at Arnish until end of March. The site will provide a total of 28 jackets and eight piles for the wind farm.
A joint venture by SSE, with a 40% share, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (35%) and Chinese power generation company SDIC (25%) the 588MW, 84-turbine wind farm, in the Moray Firth, is due to be operational in 2019.