Inch Cape Offshore Wind Farm, once complete, will power over 1.7* million households and be one of the country’s largest single sources of renewable energy.

Located 15km off the Angus Coast in the East of Scotland, Inch Cape was first established as a concept in 2008 after the site was secured in the Crown Estate’s third leasing round auction under previous ownership. The wind farm design has changed and improved over the years, taking advantage of new technologies and innovations within the wider offshore wind industry.

Inch Cape secured consent for an alternative wind farm design in Spring 2019 which would see the project benefit from improving turbine technology and allow a reduction in the number of turbines from 110 to up to 72. Fewer, higher capacity turbines will allow the project to reduce construction time and costs and minimise potential environmental impacts.

In Summer 2020, Inch Cape also secured approval to increase its generation capacity to up to 1 GW from around 700 MW. This allows the project to utilise the latest technology to maximise the efficiency of the wind farm without changing the design beyond the criteria of existing consent (i.e number or height of turbines).  The actual generating capacity will be confirmed in due course.

Electricity from Inch Cape will be transmitted via subsea export cables to an existing National Grid Electricity Transmission connection at the former Cockenzie Power Station in East Lothian.

*Based on the project’s projected average net energy yield and an average annual household consumption of 2,900kWh, as per Ofgem’s 2020 Typical Domestic Consumption Values (these will next be updated in 2023)