ScottishPower and Shell have completed a consultation on their proposed 3GW MarramWind floating offshore wind farm.
Almost 300 people across Aberdeenshire took part in the second round of the project’s consultation, which provided an update on how plans had changed since the first.
This included public drop-in events in Peterhead and Longside, a virtual exhibition and live online Q&A sessions, with people getting the chance to meet the project team and ask questions.
Located 47 miles (75km) off the north-east coast of Aberdeenshire, MarramWind could produce enough homegrown green electricity to power the equivalent of more than 3.5 million homes.
The project is part of the major ScotWind round of offshore wind farms, which added 20 projects worth over 27GW of capacity to the Scottish pipeline.
MarramWind project director Richard Eakin said: “It was great to get the chance to see so many people engaged and hear their thoughts and views on how we can bring this project to life in a way that maximises the potential benefits and positive impact for local communities.
“MarramWind could make a long and lasting difference for the north-east and really support the energy transition by delivering investment, jobs and economic growth while turbo-charging the generation of clean energy. Getting the local input and insight to ensure we can achieve this in the right way is vital.
“Massive thanks to everyone who took part in our second round of consultation – we’ll now get to work on analysing and considering all the feedback we received and use that to help shape our final design proposals. We’ll be back in the north-east to share these with the public next year.”
Earlier this year, marine surveys for the MarramWind floating offshore wind farm uncovered the likely resting place of the SS Tobol, a 107-year-old WWI shipwreck.
ScottishPower said that it had established a 250m exclusion zone to protect the wreck during survey works. Discussions are ongoing to establish a long-term archaeological exclusion zone to ensure the SS Tobol wreck is protected and preserved.