ONE of the largest floating offshore wind projects in the world has taken a step closer to becoming reality with the submission of the consent application for its offshore array to the Scottish Government.

The proposed Ossian project is being co-developed off Scotland’s east coast by a partnership comprising Scottish renewable energy developer SSE Renewables, Japanese conglomerate Marubeni Corporation (Marubeni) and Danish fund management company Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP).

At up to 3.6GW of installed capacity, Ossian would be among the largest floating offshore wind farms globally.

If the project becomes a reality, developers claim it would be capable of generating enough clean, renewable energy to power up to six million homes annually.

Extensive consultation and investigation work has taken place over the past three years to assess the project’s 858km2 site, which sits 84km off Scotland’s east coast.

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The environmental impact assessment (EIA) can be viewed at Dunbar’s Bleachingfield Centre.

The shortest distance between any part of Ossian and East Lothian would 138km.

Dunbar was chosen as the site for the EIA documents to allow for a coverage of the east coast but a spokesperson for the development did not "anticipate any significant visual impact from the coastline in East Lothian".

Rich Morris, Ossian’s development lead, said: “We have submitted a comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment report to the Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate, and we’re committed to continuing engagement with the statutory consultees and wider stakeholder community.

“We are confident this submission will support the timely delivery of the UK’s largest floating offshore wind farm, ensuring Ossian is ready to take full advantage of ongoing grid reforms and National Grid ESO’s move to a ‘first ready, first connected' model.

“We have worked hard to reach this significant milestone, which is crucial in paving the way for a decarbonised future and supporting the Scottish and UK Governments’ net-zero targets.”

Ossian has consulted with more than 30 organisations, including regulatory and industry bodies across nature conservation, fisheries, aviation and shipping and navigation, during the application process.

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Extensive surveys have also gathered enormous amounts of key data relating to the wind farm array.

This includes Ossian’s collaboration with other ScotWind developers to document the habits of bird populations in the wider North Sea region.

The survey involved four aircraft flying simultaneously once a month to collect high-definition images across an 11,550km2 area in the North Sea and took 690 hours to complete.

In November last year, Ossian also became the first ScotWind floating offshore wind farm to complete essential geotechnical surveys.

Earlier this year, a year-long metocean data-gathering campaign collecting information relating to wave height, currents, tides and sediment movements was concluded.

The data and samples provided are crucial to understanding the engineering properties of the seabed across the vast site.

Copies of the report will be available to view free of charge as part of public consultation, which runs until September 3.

An online version will also be available at ossian-eia.com