The company behind a proposed £10 billion windfarm development off the east coast of Scotland is confident the project will overcome a major legal hurdle.
Seagreen Wind Energy has plans for a huge wind array for a section of the North Sea spanning the Forth and Tay’s outer firths.
The partnership between SSE Renewables Developments (UK) and Fluor Limited, is seeking consent from Marine Scotland to raise up to 150 turbines in two sections.
The Seagreen Alpha and Seagreen Bravo installations would each have a capacity of 525 MW and accommodate up to 75 wind turbines.
There would be supporting infrastructure of subsea cables, offshore substation platforms and meteorological masts.
The electricity produced would come onshore at Carnoustie where it would be cabled underground to Tealing to connect with the national network.
The project would create up to 700 jobs at the installation stage but considerably less once operational.
Seagreen holds an agreement with the Crown Estate for the Firth of Forth zone.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds served a petition for a judicial review of the offshore consents granted by the Scottish Government.
Seagreen, which is supporting the Government in its response, says in its newly published annual report for the year to March 2015 that the outcome of a court hearing on the issue is expected in September.
“It is the belief of the directors that the decision of the Scottish Government can be defended and the consents will be allowed to stand,” the report adds.
The windfarm will only be financially viable if the consents are obtained.
With no activities to produce income during the year, Seagreen made a pre-tax loss of £177,000, considerably less than its previous year’s loss of almost £6 million.
Perth-based SSE has scaled back its support for offshore renewables.
It has pledged to endorse the Seagreen project to the point of securing the necessary consents but said it will not extend the scope of its commitment in the near term.