EDF Energy’s new renewables arm is looking to add more jobs in the north-east and Highlands as it ramps up its projects there.
Susie Lind, head of legal at EDF Renewables, said the company aimed to further “increase jobs in the supply chain” after adding 80 new positions to support its growing operations across Scotland.
EDF Renewables has a number of onshore projects in the Highlands and Islands, including the Clash Gour wind farm.
The French company is also developing the 450 megawatt (MW) Neart na Gaoithe (NnG) offshore wind farm in the Firth of Forth.
The £2 billion NnG wind project is expected to create around 500 jobs while also delivering £540 million to the local economy.
Located 10 miles off the east coast of Scotland, the NnG development is expected to be operational by 2023.
Ms Lind said: “We want to be developing here, we want to be spending money here – particularly in the supply chain, it just makes complete sense.
“We’ve recently added an extension of 80 people, 60 of whom will be working on our offshore NnG project in the Forth.
“This just cements our commitment to Scotland. Something that’s been a priority over a number of years.”
Last year, developer Mainstream Renewable Power sold its majority stake in the project to EDF Renewables.
In 2016, a consortium group committed to providing backing worth £500 million for NnG, but progress was slowed down by a lengthy legal battle with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).
The RSPB said NnG, along with two other proposed wind farm developments, presented a serious threat to sea birds.
But in 2017, the UK Supreme Court denied the bird preservation charity’s application to appeal an earlier ruling which found that permissions granted by Scottish Ministers for NnG, Inch Cape and Seagreen wind farms in the Outer Firths of Tay and Forth were valid.
Recommended for you
