Developing a wind farm in one of the windiest areas of the UK.

Developing and building a wind farm the size of Viking would be a complex process on the UK mainland, but developing it on the Shetland Islands in one of the windiest areas of the UK has seen many unique issues identified and overcome.

SSE Renewables has safely developed many wind farms and other generation assets across the UK and Ireland with a dedicated team of in-house professionals with many years of multi-discipline experience and expertise between them. It has been this experience, combined with the expertise of our many contractor partners, which has seen Viking through more than 15 years of detailed and meticulous development and, more recently, construction.

All wind farms require careful consideration and detailed assessment of many matters including:

  • Habitat and environment
  • Archaeology
  • Ground conditions
  • Wind resource
The Shetland weather was often a source of challenge for the construction team

From the beginning of development, our teams have studied, assessed and developed mitigation strategies for these and many other factors. But building an onshore wind farm in the remote Shetland Islands provided further challenges including the availability of electricity grid connections, transport links, logistics, island weather conditions and more.

Once the team had completed their detailed analysis, surveys and assessments and all of the relevant planning consents were in place, we made the final decision to proceed to construction in the summer of 2020.

You can find out more about different elements of the Viking wind farm development by clicking on one of the links below:
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