The Spanish company is participating in the development of three farms in Scotland—Inch Cape, Moray Firth and Beatrice—located about 20 kilometers off the coast. Inch Cape will have enough capacity to provide energy for 680,000 homes.

Repsol is focusing special attention on the development of offshore wind energy in northern Europe, where there are already 2,000 turbines installed representing over 90% of global offshore capacity. The turbines at the new Scottish farms in which the Spanish company is participating will function 4,000 hours per year, in contrast to the 2,500 annual hours which is typical for land-based wind farms.

Once final approval is received from Scottish authorities, the exact location of the turbines will be decided; for the Inch Cape farm, this could include up to 213 turbines placed over an area covering 150 square kilometers. A series of substations located at sea will connect the generators to the electricity grid on shore via undersea cable.

Final approval of Repsol’s wind project in Scotland now largely depends on the environmental impact studies for each farm, and especially the effect they would have on birds, fish and marine fauna. The company expects approval will be forthcoming very soon and hopes to begin producing electricity in Scotland as of 2018.