The Scottish Government has granted planning consent for an eight turbine, six megawatt (MW) offshore wind farm off the coast of Aberdeen.

In an announcement on Thursday, authorities said that the floating facility will have a capacity of as much as 50 MW and is set to support roughly 110 jobs through assembly, installation and "ongoing operations and maintenance activities."



In addition, it will help to prevent over 94,500 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.

"Once operational, this pioneering, 50MW Kincardine Offshore Windfarm will produce enough electricity to power almost 56,000 homes and will create jobs and investment across Scotland through the use of our supply chain," Paul Wheelhouse, Scotland's minister for business, innovation and energy, said in a statement.



"It will also cement our place as one of the world's leading nations in the innovation and deployment of floating offshore wind," Wheelhouse added.



"If the technology can be demonstrated at scale, it has huge potential to help Scotland meet its energy needs and to develop a supply chain that can service opportunities elsewhere in Europe and in markets such as South East Asia and North America."

The approval was welcomed by environmental groups.



"The continued development of floating turbines in Scotland is encouraging as it could enable us and other nations to secure even more clean power from offshore wind," Lang Banks, director of WWF Scotland, said.



"One thing is clear, if we are to meet our future climate and energy targets we will certainly need both more onshore and offshore wind in the future."