The first minister of Scotland John Swinney has opened SSE’s new onshore wind, solar and battery control centre in Scotland.
The new control centre, located at SSE’s headquarters in Perth, will support SSE Renewables’ operations as it expands in the onshore renewable energy market. SSE Renewables currently has an onshore operational portfolio of almost 2.5GW of onshore wind, solar and battery energy storage system (BESS) projects, with a further 800MW of projects in construction across the UK.
First minister of Scotland, John Swinney MSP, said: “SSE’s new Onshore Renewable Energy Control Centre in Perth will play a critical role in helping Scotland meet our shared renewable energy and climate ambitions. SSE has made significant progress made towards building a cleaner energy system and the Scottish Government is absolutely committed to working with the industry to achieve this goal.”
Heather Donald, director of onshore wind, solar & battery, SSE Renewables, added: “We’re proud to have invested in the development and delivery of this international onshore renewables hub in Perth. As the UK races to a homegrown energy system anchored in clean, green, renewable power, our investment in this vital operational centre ensures Scotland, with its incredible wind resource, will remain at the heart of the energy transition for decades to come”.
SSE invests and expands
The opening of the new centre comes a month after the energy generator’s most recent Irish wind development reached an exciting milestone.
SSE’s 101MW Yellow River wind farm, located in Rhode, County Offaly, generated its first power in December 2024, following its successful connection and energisation by Irish system operator EirGrid.
Earlier that month, the firm’s transmission business SSEN Transmission announced that it would commit over £22 billion to grid infrastructure improvements. Of this, around £16 billion is made up of committed strategic investments already approved by the energy regulator Ofgem through its Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment (ASTI) framework.
According to SSEN Transmission, this investment will support the development of at least 1,000 new homes across the north of Scotland, supporting the Scottish government’s core goal of building 1.5 million new homes over the next five years.
However, SSE’s most exciting development of the year is yet to come. In October 2024, the company announced that it would delay the commissioning of its 1.2GW Dogger Bank A offshore wind farm to H2 2025.
