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Construction starts on Strathy South wind farm but operator SSE still likely to miss 2030 renewables target
28/5/2025
News
The good news: SSE has commenced construction of its 208 MW Strathy South wind farm in the Scottish Highlands. The not so good news: the project and others like it won’t be enough for SSE to hit its own 2030 renewables goal. Meanwhile, in Germany, Enercon has commissioned its latest onshore wind turbine design, claimed to be ‘one of the largest, most powerful and highest-yielding onshore turbines on the European market’.
The Strathy South onshore wind farm is located in Sutherland, northern Scotland. It is adjacent to SSE’s 67.75 MW Strathy North wind farm, which was commissioned in 2015. Comprising 35 Vestas V162-6.2 MW wind turbines, Strathy South is expected to start commercial operations in late 2027. It will be capable of powering around 200,000 British homes annually with renewable energy.
The project will help support the UK government’s clean power by 2030 goal, according to Stephen Wheeler, Managing Director of SSE Renewables, who also mentions the Berwick Bank offshore wind project.
The UK government aims to double onshore wind to 30 GW and quadruple offshore wind to 50 GW by 2030 as a cornerstone of its goal to fully decarbonise the nation’s electricity by 2030.
SSE, one of the UK’s biggest energy developers, reports that it has invested some £2.9bn in the UK’s energy infrastructure over the last 12 months. Milestones have included first power from the 443 MW Viking wind farm onshore Shetland and the associated full energisation of the Shetland HVDC link to Great Britain’s national grid, and the start of construction on the UK’s single largest electricity transmission project, Eastern Green Link 2 (EGL2).
However, when announcing the company’s latest full year company results earlier this month, SSE’s outgoing Chief Executive Alistair Phillips-Davies warned that the changing macroeconomic environment and wider delays to policy and planning processes had led the company to revise its capital investment plan to £17.5bn for the five years to 2027, a reduction of some £3bn. As a result, the company is now unlikely to meet its target of 50 TWh of renewable generation by 2030 target.
This is another blow to the UK government’s net zero plans. Earlier in the month, Ørsted announced it was pausing development of the Hornsea 4 wind project offshore the UK, as increased supply chain costs, higher interest rates and rising construction and operational risks had made the project financially unviable in its current form.
Prototype onshore wind turbine produces first electricity
Meanwhile, German wind turbine manufacturer Enercon reports its prototype E-175 EP5 E2 wind turbine at Wachendorf in Lower Saxony has produced first electricity to the grid.
‘With a rated power of 7 MW and a rotor diameter of 175 metres, it is one of the largest, most powerful and highest-yielding onshore turbines on the European market,’ claims Enercon.
Based on the company’s 6 MW E-175 EP5 wind turbine design, the new E2 prototype features an external rotor, so sized to provide a larger air gap diameter ‘for higher torques and thus higher power levels’. The company also notes that it can be split for transport, with the generator delivered to the construction site in two halves and only assembled during system installation.
Enercon plans to ramp up the prototype’s output to nominal power, followed by ‘further tests and measurements to validate the new system’.
Enercon’s prototype E-175 EP5 E2 wind turbine at Wachendorf in Lower Saxony, Germany
Photo: Enercon
