Two recently consented offshore wind farms in the outer Moray Firth will bring economic prosperity to the Moray area, especially through the use of Buckie Harbour, local parliamentarians say.
There are significant opportunities for Moray through development of Buckie Harbour as an Operations and Maintenance Base and for supply chain work for existing Moray businesses, as well as generating more inward investment. The combined offshore wind farm developments of Moray Offshore Wind Farm and Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm are valued £2.5 billion pounds of investment and are expected to generate thousands of construction jobs with several hundred long-term jobs in operations and maintenance of the 326 turbines.
Buckie Harbour consists of four basins which can accommodate vessels up to 80m in length and 4.2m draught at mean low water springs ( MLWS) tides.
Angus Robertson MP said: “The renewables revolution in Scotland is absolutely massive for Moray. With hundreds of offshore turbines and Buckie being a reliable all weather port it is easy to see where the benefits for economic development in the region can come from.
“The importance to Moray’s economy of these two major offshore wind developments should not be underestimated and the consents mean we can expect to see some major benefits fairly quickly.”
MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Stewart Stevenson , whose constituency takes in Buckie, said: “Development of Buckie Harbour is recognised as being of national infrastructure importance and the windfarm developments in the Moray Firth are a major factor in making that viable and delivering substantial economic development to Buckie and the wider Moray economy.
“The consenting of these developments is great news and I fully expect to see these projects progressing apace and generating significant jobs and investment to support them.”
Moray’s MSP Richard Lochhead said: “A lot of behind the scenes work has been done to get these projects to this point and the consents for them are a huge milestone. The highly skilled workforce that will now be required to bring these projects to fruition will bring people to live and work in Moray and provide a major boost to the whole regional economy.
“There are fabrication businesses in Moray, companies providing specialist offshore services and all of the industries down the line that support them. This is fantastic economic news for Moray and it will see massive renewable energy generation, generating massive economic benefits for us.”
Press release, April 9, 2014; Image: wikimedia