Farr Point Wave Farm

Farr Point, located off the Sutherland Coast, is located within the world’s first leasing round for wave and tidal energy.

In March 2010 Pelamis Wave Power was successful in securing a seabed lease option from The Crown Estate. This was the world’s first leasing round for marine energy projects. The lease option awarded would allow the Farr Point Wave Farm to eventually be expanded to 50MW, dependant on successful grid and environmental consent awards.

Project Details

The ‘Area of Search' is located around 3 – 12 km off the Sutherland coast, close to Bettyhill. The project is being developed in Phases, with the first phase of a wave farm rated anticipated to have 15 MW installed capacity (up to 20 Pelamis machines). A Pelamis wave farm of this size would occupy approximately 2 km². With a secure grid connection to the mainland of Scotland, the Farr Point project is not reliant on transmission upgrades to the Scottish outer islands.

The proposals at Farr Point have been successful in securing ‘Official Applicant’ status for the Scottish Government’s Saltire Prize, a unique international challenge to accelerate innovation and breakthrough for marine technologies.

Project Status

In April 2011, Pelamis Wave Power initiated a formal scoping exercise as part of the Environmental Impact Assessment process.  The purpose of the scoping exercise is to provide stakeholders the opportunity to highlight any key issues that should be considered, and comment on the approach to site development.

Pelamis Wave Power will be working over the coming years towards making consent applications for Farr Point by completing site survey work, environmental data gathering, upfront engineering designs and impact assessments. In parallel, Pelamis will be engaging with the local communities as well as local and national stakeholders to ensure the right project is developed while maximising the local benefits.

Marine Scotland has, as part of the data gathering initiative, collected seabed information around the leasing area. Seabed data and a biological assessment of the environment can be accessed on the Marine Scotland website.