Scotland’s 450 MW Neart na Gaoithe Offshore Wind Farm Fully Operational
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
The 450 MW Neart na Gaoithe (NnG) offshore wind farm has become fully operational, with Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney visiting Eyemouth on 24 July to mark the launch of the country’s newest offshore wind project.
These first three paragraphs give more details.
Located 15.5 kilometres off the coast of Fife, NnG is co-owned by EDF power solutions UK and Ireland and ESB. The wind farm’s 54 turbines are now generating up to 450 MW of clean electricity, which is enough to power around 375,000 homes and will offset over 400,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year, according to the developer.
The installation of Siemens Gamesa 8 MW turbines was completed in April 2025, while the project produced its first power in October 2024.
Electricity generated by Neart na Gaoithe is transmitted via the subsea export cable from the offshore substation to Thorntonloch Beach, where the underground onshore export cable feeds it to the national grid.
This Google Map shows the mouth of the Firth of Forth.
Note.
- The red arrow indicates Torness power station.
- The Fife Coast is at the top of the map.
- The most Easterly island is the Isle of May.
- The wind farm is located 15.5 kilometres off the Fife Coast.
This second Google Map shows the Fife Coast and the Isle of May.
Note.
- The red arrow indicates Fife Ness lighthouse.
- The island in the South-East corner of the map is the Isle of May.
- Leven station is in the South-West corner of the map, which I described in Leven Station – 15th May 2025.
From this map, I estimated that Fife Ness lighthouse and the Isle of May are around ten kilometres apart.
This third Google Map shows Torness nuclear power station on the other side of the Firth of Forth.
Note.
- Torness nuclear powerstation is indicated by the red arrow.
- The A1 road between Edinburgh and the South crossing the map diagonally.
- The East Coast Main Line following a similar route to the A1.
- The beach below the power station is Tgortonlock, where the cable from Neart na Gaoithe wind farm comes ashore.
Consider.
- Torness nuclear powerstation was built in 1988.
- It has a capacity of 1290 MW.
- Neart na Gaoithe wind farm has a capacity of 450 MW.
This is said in the Wikipedia entry for the Torness nuclear powerstation about its closure.
In December 2024, in response to concerns over energy security following delays to the opening of Hinkley Point C, EDF announced that the life of Torness would be extended two years until March 2030.
In January 2025, EDF stated that “their ambition is to generate beyond these dates [of March 2030], subject to plant inspections and regulatory oversight”
It looks like more power is needed at Torness to cover the closure of the nuclear powerstation.
I asked Google to give me an AI Overview of what wind farms will connect to the grid at Torness and I was given this answer.
Several wind farms are planned to connect to the grid near Torness, with the largest being the Berwick Bank Wind Farm. This offshore wind farm, located 40km off the coast, will connect to the National Grid at Branxton, near Torness. Another project, Eastern Green Link 1 (EGL1), will also connect to the grid near Torness, specifically at the Torness substation, and then link to Hawthorn Pit in County Durham. Additionally, the Neart na Gaoithe offshore wind farm is also being developed in the area.
As Berwick Bank wind farm and EGL1 have capacities of 4.1 and 2 GW respectively, I am fairly sure that Torness can be safely decommissioned.
Race For Clean Power Surges Ahead As New Electricity Superhighway Greenlit
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from Ofgem.
These three paragraphs, explain the infrastructure.
Flagged by the National Energy System Operator (NESO) as an essential element in achieving the Government’s Clean Power 2030 ambition, Eastern Green Link 1 (EGL1As part of its mission to rapidly upgrade the energy system with a minimum cost to customers, Ofgem has identified over £43m of savings which have been cut from the project costs without impacting delivery or quality. Communities that host the infrastructure in Scotland and North-East England are also set to benefit from a £7.9m social value and community benefit fund.) is a high voltage electricity superhighway able to transport 2 gigawatts of homegrown wind generated electricity between Torness, East Lothian and Hawthorn Pit, County Durham. A gigawatt (GW) is equivalent to one billion watts, and one gigawatt hour (GWh) of electricity is enough to power one million homes for one hour. Most of the 196km cable will be under the North Sea, with the remaining 20km of cables underground linking the cable to substations and converter stations in Scotland and England.
The project will reduce Great Britain’s reliance on volatile international gas markets by further harnessing the power of homegrown North Sea wind. NESO’s recent Clean Power 2030 Report has also shown that the project will deliver annual saving of over £870m by reducing the need to compensate British wind generators who are currently asked to turn off production during times of high wind due to lack of grid capacity. This in turn will help drive down consumer bills.
Note.
- Eastern Green Link 1 (EGL1) is a high voltage electricity superhighway able to transport 2 gigawatts of homegrown wind generated electricity between Torness, East Lothian and Hawthorn Pit, County Durham.
- This is the second down the eastern side of the UK.
- In Contracts Signed For Eastern Green Link 2 Cable And Converter Stations, I described how contracts were signed for EGL2 from Peterhead in Scotland to Drax in England .
- Most of the 196km cable will be under the North Sea, with the remaining 20km of cables underground linking the cable to substations and converter stations in Scotland and England.
There are another two 2 GW cables to follow in the current plan!
Hawthorn Pit Solar Farm
This document from the Department of Business, Industry and Industrial Strategy lists all the Contracts for Difference Allocation Round 6 results for the supply of zero-carbon electricity.
Hawthorn Pit solar farm was given a Contract for Difference.
The solar farm has a web page on the Aura Power web site, where this paragraph describes the solar farm.
Aura Power is working on a solar farm proposal between Murton and South Hetton, with a capacity of up to 49.9MW (Megawatts). The solar farm will be built without subsidy and would generate enough clean electricity to power the equivalent of over 17,000 homes, saving around 15,203 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere each year.
This Google Map shows the location of Hawthorn Pit.
Note.
- The Durham coast is at the East with Seaham at the North and Horden at the South.
- The A 19 runs North-South in the middle of the map.
- Hawthorn Pit substation is marked by the red arrow.
This second Google Map shows the substation in more detail.
There are a lot of switches and wires.
From the map on the Aura Power web site, it appears that the solar farm is to to the North side of the substation.
Eastern Green Link One
In the future Hawthorn Pit substation will also host the Southern end of Eastern Green Link One, which will be a a 2 GW high voltage direct current (HVDC) electrical superhighway to be built between the Torness area in East Lothian, Scotland and Hawthorn Pit in County Durham, England.
This is number one of four such 2 GW undersea connections that will distribute energy between England and Scotland.
Conclusion
Hawthorn Pit substation could growto an important interchange in the grid.
Ørsted, Simply Blue, Subsea7 Submit Application For 100 MW Scottish Floating Wind Farm
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
Ørsted, Simply Blue Group and Subsea7, through their joint venture partnership in Scotland, have submitted an offshore consent application for the proposed 100 MW Salamander floating offshore wind farm, one of the 13 projects selected in Scotland’s Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) leasing round.
The article starts with a map that shows the location of the Salamander floating offshore wind farm and it shows how the sea is getting very crowded 35 kilometres off Peterhead.
This map shows the various ScotWind leases, around the North of Scotland.
The numbers are Scotwind’s lease number in their documents.
These are the Scotwind wind farms to the North-East of Scotland.
- 1 – BP Alternative Energy Investments – 859 km² – 2.9 GW – Fixed
- 2 – SSE Renewables – 859 km² – 2.6 GW – Floating
- 3 – Falck Renewables Wind – 280 km² – 1.2 GW – Floating
- 4 – Shell – 860 km² – 2.0 GW – Floating
- 5 – Vattenfall – 200 km² – 0.8 GW – Floating
- 6 – DEME – 187 km² – 1.0 GW – Fixed
- 9 – Ocean Winds – 429 km² – 1.0 GW – Fixed
- 10 – Falck Renewables Wind – 134 km² – 0.5 GW – Floating
- 11 – Scottish Power Renewables – 684 km² – 3.0 GW – Floating
- 12 – BayWa r.e. UK – 330 km² – 1.0 GW – Floating
Note.
- Salamander is located to the South of wind farms 10, 11 and 12 and to the North-West of wind farm 5.
- These windfarms total up to 16 GW.
- 4.9 GW are fixed foundation wind farms.
- 11.1 GW are floating wind farms.
These are my thoughts.
The Salamander Project
In the big scheme of things, the 100 MW Salamander wind farm, is rather a tiddler of a wind farm.
On the Salamander wind farm web site, a section gives the Project Goals.
- Our innovative pre-commercial stepping-stone concept will use novel floating foundations to (i) maximise Scottish content, (ii) enable the Scottish supply chain to gear up for the future floating offshore wind commercial opportunities in ScotWind and (iii) reduce the financial, environmental and technology risks of floating offshore wind.
- The Salamander project will contribute to the Scottish Government and UK Government net-zero targets. The project can contribute to the Scottish government’s target of 11 GW of installed offshore wind by 2030, as well as the UK government’s target of 5 GW of operational floating offshore wind by the same date.
- We are dedicated to developing a sustainable and transformative project, working with the oceans, and enabling communities to benefit from Project Salamander. Therefore, we commit to having a continuous and strong stakeholder and community engagement.
It appears to me, that the Salamander project will be a pathfinder for the 11.1 GW of floating wind farms to be built off Peterhead.
Bringing The Electricity South
National Grid are building four interconnectors between Eastern Scotland and Eastern England.
- Eastern Green Link 1 – Torness and Hawthorn Pit
- Eastern Green Link 2 – Peterhead and Drax
- Eastern Green Link 3 – Westfield and Lincolnshire
- Eastern Green Link 4 – Peterhead and Lincolnshire
Note.
- All interconnectors are 2 GW.
- All interconnectors are offshore for a long part of their route.
- It also appears that National Grid are burying much of the onshore sections.
But the 4 GW of interconnectors will only be able to bring a quarter of the offshore electricity generated in the Peterhead area to the South.
What Will Happen To The Excess Electricity?
Consider.
- There could be 16 GW of planned offshore wind power around Peterhead and North-East Scotland.
- There is only 4 GW of interconnector capacity between Peterhead and Eastern England.
- There is another 6.8 GW of electricity around North-West Scotland.
- There is 2.8 GW of electricity being developed to the East of Shetland.
- The Crown Estate is thinking of increasing the size of some offshore wind farms.
It is likely, that other wind farms will be built in the seas around the North of Scotland.
It appears that the North of Scotland could have at least 20 GW of excess electricity.
Possible solutions would include.
- Developing energy intensive industries like metal refining.
- More interconnectors to Denmark, England, Ireland and Norway.
- Storage of the electricity in giant pumped storage hydroelectric power stations.
- Creation of green hydrogen for export.
Note.
- Aluminium refining has been developed in the North of Scotland before.
- More interconnectors are a possibility, especially as Scotland is developing cable manufacturing capacity.
- Some maps show extra interconnectors between West Scotland and Merseyside.
- At least 70 GWh of pumped storage hydroelectric power stations are being developed along the Great Glen.
- I suspect that the pumped storage hydroelectric power stations could be connected to the wind farms, by cables under the waters of Loch Ness.
But surely, production of green hydrogen for export would be a very good way to go.
- Extra electrolysers could be added as required.
- Because of the interconnectors down both East and West Coasts, electrolysers could be built in England, where there is a large need for hydrogen.
- Hydrogen would be exported initially by tanker ships.
- At some point in the future, it might be viable to build a hydrogen pipeline to connect to the growing European hydrogen network.
The giant pumped storage hydroelectric power stations and the hydrogen electrolysers would be sized to make sure, that no wind power is never wasted.
Conclusion
The 100 MW Salamander floating wind farm may only be small, but it will prove the technology, the manufacturing and the supply chains, so that Scotland can have a second energy boom from the North Sea.
But this boom will certainly last longer than a hundred years.
The Anonymous Widower 