SSE snaps up rest of offshore wind business Seagreen

SSE is continuing its push into renewable energy projects by taking full control of the Seagreen Wind Energy venture.

Seagreen was established to develop offshore wind projects in the outer Firth of Forth and Firth of Tay.

They have a potential capacity of around 1.5 gigawatts (GW) - enough to power at least 670,000 homes.

SSE already owned 50% of Seagreen and said it would buy the remainder from US company Fluor for £118m.

The deal needs approval from Crown Estate Scotland, the public body that manages leasing of Scotland's seabed.

The Seagreen acquisition would take SSE's total offshore wind portfolio to about 4GW.

SSE wholesale director Martin Pibworth said: "The Seagreen acquisition aligns with SSE's ambition to create value from owning, operating and developing clean energy assets and infrastructure.

"SSE's expertise in the development, construction and operation of offshore wind will be an asset to Seagreen, and we will review the ownership structure in due course."