Wednesday January 14th 2026
Berwick Bank Offshore Windfarm
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
One of the world’s largest offshore wind farms is set to be built off the coast of East Lothian after SSE PLC secured a 20-year contract for Phase B of the project as part of Europe’s largest ever offshore wind auction by the UK Government.
Making the announcement today, SSE has secured a contract for 1.4GW of offshore wind power as part of phase B of the Berwick Bank project, marking a significant milestone in the development of the historic offshore wind project.
The Berwick Bank B contract marks the only successful Contracts for Difference (CfD) to a Scottish fixed-bottom offshore wind project out of 12 allocated today, after being successful in the award round 7. The allocation follows the decision by the Scottish Government in July 2025 to grant a consent order for the full project’s offshore wind farm array.
Located in the outer Firth of Forth around 38km east of the Borders coastline, SSE’s Berwick Bank Wind Farm is targeting the delivery of 4.1GW of offshore wind capacity in total across three roughly equal phases, projecting the project to be the world’s largest offshore wind farm if fully delivered.
The full scale of Berwick Bank makes delivery of the project critical to boosting Scotland’s renewable capacity by nearly 25%, to delivering value to consumers from lower priced offshore wind, and to meeting the UK’s clean power mission.
The project could also inject around £8 billion into the UK economy and support over 9,000 UK jobs, driving growth alongside decarbonisation.
Chief Executive of SSE PLC, Martin Pibworth, explained that the milestone allows SSE to advance the project towards a final investment decision, highlighting that if built to its full capacity, the windfarm would rank among the world’s largest.
He said: “If built to its full projected capacity of more than 4GW, Berwick Bank Wind Farm can rank among the largest offshore wind projects globally.
“It would represent the single most significant contribution toward achieving the Scottish and UK Governments’ offshore wind targets and can accelerate the delivery of homegrown, affordable, and secure clean energy to UK consumers from excellent Scottish offshore wind resources.”
Berwick Bank B will receive the guaranteed strike price of £89.49/MWh for 1,380MW of offshore renewable energy capacity, based on 2024 prices, but annually indexed since then for CPI inflation, for the contracted low carbon electricity it will generate for a 20-year period.
Following this contract success for Berwick Bank B, the remaining two A and C phases of Berwick Bank are available for entry into upcoming auction rounds, with the UK’s eighth CfD allocation round expected towards the end of this year.
With the UK Government CfD auction being described as ‘a monumental step’ towards ending the country’s reliance on fossil fuels, the auction result delivered the biggest single procurement of offshore wind energy in European history. This auction round secured major infrastructure projects which will be drivers for growth across the UK.
UK Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, explained:
“This is a historic win for those who want Britain to stand on our own two feet, controlling our own energy rather than depending on markets controlled by petrostates and dictators.
“It is a monumental step towards clean power by 2030 and the price secured in this auction is 40% lower than the alternative cost of building and operating a new gas plant.”
SSE have explained that they will now progress Berwick Bank B towards a final investment decision in line with their hurdle rates and investment criteria, expected in 2027 which will progress the construction of potentially the world’s largest distributor of wind generated clean energy.
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