Offshore wind turbines built and erected in Scotland in the last 10 years: EIR release

Information requested

How many offshore wind turbines have been built and erected in Scotland in the last 10 years (Sep 13 - Sep 23) Of all the turbines built how many households are they meant to power?

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

Response to your request

In response to the first part of your request, our records indicate that, to date, approximately 299 Wind Turbine Generators (WTGs) have been constructed since September 2013.

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. However, in the interests of meeting our statutory obligation under regulation 9 of the EIRs to advise and assist you.

The most up to date information on the number of households anticipated to be powered can be found on the respective developers’ website.

The projects which have been completed or partially constructed in the past 10 years are:

• Kincardine Offshore Wind Farm
• European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre
• Levenmouth Demonstration Turbine
• Moray East Offshore Wind Farm
• Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm
• Seagreen Offshore Wind Farm
• Hywind Scotland Pilot Park
• Neart na Gaoithe Offshore Wind Farm

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.