A giant offshore wind farm would generate more than £1.1 billion of spending in Scotland and support thousands of jobs, according to a new independent report. Neart na Gaoithe (NNG) has been the subject of a number of legal challenges from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. The charity has argued that the project and three others that have been mooted for the east coast of Scotland could result in a “major decline in seabird populations”. Research published today by the Fraser of Allander Institute at Strathclyde University said that about £2 billion will be needed to build the wind farm, with £510 million of that being spent in Scotland. A further £1.7 billion is to be used to run the wind farm for 25 years, about £610 million of the sum being spent with Scottish companies. The institute estimates that the impact of the wind farm over its building and operations phase would be equivalent to £827.4 million of gross domestic product: the equivalent of about 0.6 per cent of Scottish onshore GDP for 2016. On jobs, 2,000 people would be employed directly or indirectly over a four-year construction period.
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