Wind farm go-ahead

Scottish and Southern Energy (

) has received permission to develop its second Dutch Offshore Wind Farm in the North Sea.

The Dutch authorities awarded consent to the group’s renewables development division, Airtricity, for the construction of 'Breeveertieen II' off the coast of Ijmuiden.

Paul Dowling, chief executive of Airtricity, said: ‘This is a major achievement for SSE and takes the total offshore wind farm capacity consented to us by the Dutch government to more than 600MW.’

Once completed, Breeveertien II will be the largest wind farm in the Netherlands and will boost the country’s efforts to generate 6,000MW of offshore wind capacity by 2020. The site will consist of 97 wind turbines with a maximum energy capacity of around 350MW.

Dowling added: ‘The Dutch market is an important new area for SSE's renewable development team and the West Rijn and Breeveertien II sites will give us the potential to become the leading offshore wind developer in the Netherlands.’

In addition to overseas projects, SSE is playing a key role in the development of offshore wind farms in the UK.

The company recently received exclusive rights by

to develop offshore wind farms in Scottish territorial waters. It has also begun construction work in the outer Thames Estuary of Greater Gabbard, which is expected to be the world’s largest offshore wind farm with a capacity of 500MW.