First Power

Stoura Offshore Wind is a proposed 500 MW floating offshore wind farm being developed by ESB off the east coast of Shetland, currently in the early stages of development with surveys, scoping and planning work ongoing.[1][2][3] In ESB’s 2024 Public Exhibition Boards, the indicative project timeline showed the wind farm becoming operational around 2035, explicitly labelled as the “Operational” milestone on the right-hand side of the schedule.[3] A subsequent ESB press release in August 2024 described Stoura as a project ESB is planning to develop by the mid‑2030s, reinforcing this general timeframe for completion and grid export.[2] Most recently, the 2025 Public Exhibition Boards updated the same project timeline, shifting the “Operational” milestone to 2036, reflecting a refined and slightly later delivery expectation as development planning has progressed.[1] Taken together, these official ESB materials indicate that first electricity export from Stoura – and thus initial grid energisation of the project – is not anticipated until the mid‑2030s, with the latest published schedule pointing to around 2036 for operational status.[1][2][3] This first_power milestone remains entirely prospective; the project is still in early development with environmental baseline surveys, offshore and onshore scoping, and preparation of planning applications targeted for around 2028.[1][3] Achievement of first power will therefore depend on successful completion of consenting, detailed design, procurement and construction phases over the coming decade, but the current developer guidance provides a reasonable working assumption that initial export to the grid will occur close to 2036.