Bellrock Offshore Wind Farm is a large-scale floating offshore wind project proposed in the central North Sea, approximately 120 km east of Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, with a design capacity of up to 1.8 GW across a c.280 km² development area. The project is being progressed by the BlueFloat Energ...
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The Economic Impact appendix to the Bellrock EIA, drawing on the project’s 2023 Supply Chain Development Statement (SCDS), estimates that the Bellrock Project will require approximately £3.7 billion of capital investment during development and construction, with a detailed breakdown showing total CAPEX of about £3,665 million plus additional annual operations and maintenance and decommissioning costs.
Following receipt of Bellrock Offshore Wind Farm Limited’s Section 36 and Marine Licence applications and accompanying EIA Report, Scottish Ministers opened a public consultation, announced via a statutory notice on 21 April 2026, inviting written representations on the proposed Bellrock Offshore Wind Farm until at least 6 June 2026.
Bellrock Offshore Wind Farm Limited submitted a comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Report for the Bellrock Offshore Wind Farm to support its Section 36 consent and Marine Licence applications. The EIA package, lodged with Marine Scotland on 16 April 2026, comprises multiple volumes including report chapters, figures, appendices, management plans, a shadow Habitats Regulations Appraisal, and a shadow Nature Conservation MPA assessment covering topics such as marine ecology, ornithology, fisheries, navigation, socioeconomics, climate risk and mitigation.
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Bellrock Offshore Wind Farm, Bellrock floating wind farm, Bellrock (E1-3), ScotWind E1-3, Bellrock Offshore Wind Farm Ltd, Bellrock Offshore Wind Farm Limited, BELLROCK WIND FARM LIMITED
A Marine Licence application for the construction and operation of the Bellrock Offshore Wind Farm generating station, 120 km east of Stonehaven, was submitted to the Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate on 16 April 2026. The application, referenced as Marine Licence Application – Bellrock Offshore Wind Farm (00011977), covers the offshore generating infrastructure within the Wind Farm Development Area and is supported by detailed EIA documentation and a location plan.
As part of its Section 36 and Marine Licence applications for the Bellrock Wind Farm Development Area, Bellrock Offshore Wind Farm Limited submitted a full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Report, including figures and appendices, to Scottish Ministers, assessing the impacts of the Bellrock Wind Farm Infrastructure across construction, operation and maintenance, and decommissioning phases.
On 2 April 2026, Bellrock Offshore Wind Farm Limited submitted applications to Scottish Ministers for consent under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 and for a Marine Licence under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 for the construction and operation of the Bellrock Wind Farm Infrastructure (up to 1.8 GW of floating wind capacity) within the Bellrock Wind Farm Development Area in the central North Sea, 120 km east of Stonehaven.
Bellrock’s project website lists the March 2026 Public Information Events under “Previous Consultation Events” and provides the exhibition boards and maps from those events, indicating the consultation events took place in March 2026 (covering 3–5 March per the project’s published materials).
The Draft Updated Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy (Scottish Government, 2025) confirmed the Bellrock site, identified as Option Area E1 B, as a strategically designated commercial offshore wind development area, providing the national planning context and baseline for cumulative development of the Bellrock project.
In November 2025, Nadara acquired BlueFloat Energy’s 50% stake in the Bellrock floating offshore wind farm, giving Nadara full ownership of the project and making Bellrock Offshore Wind Farm Limited a wholly owned subsidiary of Nadara Limited.
In November 2025, the Bellrock project team ran virtual public consultation events, providing online exhibition boards and materials to inform stakeholders about the Bellrock Offshore Wind Farm and gather feedback during the consenting phase.
By mid‑May 2025, geotechnical seabed surveys at the Bellrock site, conducted by Acteon alongside geophysical investigations, had been completed, with their findings being integrated with metocean data to refine the engineering design of the floating offshore wind farm.
In April 2025, the National Energy System Operator (NESO) imposed a change to Bellrock’s grid connection design, requiring the project to connect to the National Electricity Transmission System via SSEN Transmission’s proposed Hurlie substation west of Stonehaven, instead of the previously anticipated coordinated offshore substation solution, thereby altering the regulatory grid connection framework for the project.
The two‑year wind and metocean monitoring campaign at the Bellrock floating offshore wind farm, based on EOLOS FLS200 floating LiDAR buoys deployed in the Bellrock area, was completed by April 2025, providing data on wind, waves, currents and atmosphere to support engineering design and energy yield assessments.
The BlueFloat Energy | Nadara partnership selected Sarens PSG’s new Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence in Aberdeen’s Energy Transition Zone as the base for a major study on rapid, cost‑effective industrial‑scale deployment of floating wind turbines for its Scottish projects, including Bellrock, building on a previously completed floating WTG integration study by Sarens PSG.
In July 2024, Renantis merged with Ventient Energy to form Nadara, meaning Nadara became the joint venture partner in the Bellrock project in place of Renantis while BlueFloat Energy remained the other co-owner.
Bellrock Offshore Wind Farm Limited submitted its Wind Farm Development Area Scoping Report and Habitats Regulations Appraisal Screening Report to the Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate, triggering a public consultation on the offshore aspects of the 1.2 GW Bellrock project. The reports were made available on the Marine Directorate’s website, with stakeholders invited to comment by 8 May 2024.
Bellrock Offshore Wind Farm Limited held public information events in February 2024 as part of early community engagement on the Bellrock project, with exhibition boards and materials subsequently made available online for stakeholders to review.
In 2023, site‑specific environmental and benthic survey campaigns began at the Bellrock offshore wind farm area, with Ocean Ecology supporting Acteon and the BlueFloat Energy | Renantis partnership through benthic sampling and habitat assessments to gather critical Environmental Impact Assessment and consenting data for Bellrock and related projects.
By 7 November 2023, geophysical seabed survey work at the Bellrock floating offshore wind site, commissioned by the BlueFloat Energy | Renantis partnership and executed by Acteon using the vessel Ocean Fortune, had been completed as part of preparatory surveys for four new floating offshore wind farms in the North Sea.
Preparatory environmental and seabed survey work, including analysis of seabed composition and structure to inform turbine layouts, foundation and mooring design at the Bellrock site, was reported complete in November 2023 following campaigns carried out by Acteon’s offshore site investigation teams for the BlueFloat Energy | Renantis partnership.
DORIS was appointed as Principal Designer for the Bellrock floating offshore wind farm (and the Broadshore project) by the BlueFloat Energy | Renantis partnership, taking responsibility for planning, managing, monitoring and coordinating design risk management and CDM compliance through the pre-construction phase up to final investment decision.
A floating LiDAR buoy was deployed within the Bellrock Wind Farm Development Area in April 2023, initiating a two‑year wind and metocean monitoring campaign to collect data such as wave conditions to inform the detailed design of the wind farm infrastructure.
A joint venture between BlueFloat Energy and Renantis, acting through Bellrock Offshore Wind Farm Limited, was established to develop the Bellrock floating offshore wind farm in Scottish waters after the partners secured the ScotWind seabed lease for the Bellrock site in 2022.
In January 2022, Crown Estate Scotland awarded Bellrock Offshore Wind Farm Limited the rights to develop an area of seabed for the Bellrock Wind Farm Development Area under the ScotWind leasing round.
Bellrock Offshore Wind Farm Limited submitted a seabed lease application to Crown Estate Scotland in July 2021, seeking development rights for the Bellrock Wind Farm Development Area (WFDA) in the central North Sea.
During early development, the Bellrock project defined its transmission concept, with power from the offshore wind farm planned to come ashore between Findon and St Cyrus on the Aberdeenshire coast and connect into SSEN Transmission’s new Hurlie 400 kV substation west of Stonehaven. This establishes the indicative landfall area and onshore grid connection point for the Bellrock Transmission export system, alongside ongoing consideration of the offshore substation and export cable design options.
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