Business leaders in the far north have hailed the confirmation of a £2.6billion offshore windfarm as having the power to “transform” the region.
Caithness Chamber of Commerce welcomed the 84-turbine Beatrice project announced on Monday, which is expected to create spin-off benefits for a number of north businesses.
Among them is a £10million infrastructure improvement project at Wick Harbour – while other north ports and businesses also welcomed the announcement made earlier this week.
Trudy Morris, chief executive of Caithness Chamber of Commerce, said: “We are delighted with the Beatrice announcement.
“The Wick Harbour board, and in particular Willie Watt the chairman, have worked tirelessly to get the harbour positioned as a preferred base for this development.
“So it’s great to finally see the fruits of their hard-work, grit and determination.
“This has the potential to transform Wick with around £10million investment and create significant jobs in the area. With SSE’s Open4Business procurement portal, local companies in the north of Scotland have been able to get information on forthcoming developments and get involved.”
She added: “Local companies in Caithness are certainly well placed to support this development with their wide ranging expertise and capability. Just this weekend we had local firm JGC Engineering and Technical Services move large support modules to Scrabster for shipping south.
“They will form part of the Rampion offshore windfarm development off the south coast of England. So we look forward to seeing the development move forward later this year.”
Among the companies already announced as benefiting is Subsea 7, which operates a base in Caithness and will be involved in the fabrication and installation of foundations and cables for the offshore turbines.
The companies chief executive Jean Cahuzac welcomed the announcement, confirming that the contract is the largest for the North Sea.
Bob Buskie, chief executive of the Port of Cromarty Firth said also welcomed the news, saying that the harbour was well placed to benefit having handled more than 2,500 windfarm components over the last 10 years.
He said: “This announcement is excellent news for the port.
“We have been developing our relationships with offshore renewables companies for the last couple of years.
“The port is ideally located for the Beatrice offshore wind farm with our safe deep-water, 24 hours x 365 days operation, and available quaysides.
“These can play a significant role in supporting the installation and support phase of this project.”
