Mast a 'milestone' in Moray Firth wind turbines scheme

Hundreds of turbines have been proposed for the Outer Moray Firth

A meteorological mast has been installed at the location of a proposed offshore wind project in the Outer Moray Firth.

Moray Offshore Renewables Limited (Morl) plans to build three wind farms called Telford, Stevenson and MacColl with up to 62 turbines on each site.

The met mast will measure wind conditions ahead of their construction.

In a separate project, Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Limited plans to install a further 110 turbines.

Fabrication of the met mast was carried out by Isleburn, a subsidiary of Global Energy, at Invergordon in Easter Ross. Another company, Drace Infraestructuras, led the installation of it.

Construction of the mast involved a yard in Easter Ross

The Scottish government gave the Morl and Beatrice projects the go-ahead in March.

At the time, it said the combined development off the Caithness coast would make it the world's third biggest offshore wind farm.

If constructed, the combined scheme would have more turbines than the 175-turbine London Array.

It would also be the third largest in the world after the planned South Korea Electric Power scheme off the south-west coast of the Korean peninsula, and the Blekinge project in the Baltic Sea off Sweden.

Morl project director Dan Finch said the installation of the mast marked a "major milestone" in the project.

He said: "Fabrication of the mast itself was undertaken by Global Energy at Invergordon, demonstrating how the skills and enterprise of the local economy are already successfully competing to take advantage of the new markets which offshore wind is bringing.

"The involvement of Drace and Global Energy has brought new entrants to the offshore wind supply chain, delivered new investment to the UK and demonstrated new and innovative techniques that can be used in full-scale offshore wind deployment."