Over 100,000 people work in the energy sector in Scotland, a labor force that has developed over the last 40 years around offshore oil and gas production in the North Sea. As the reservoirs empty, this population faces diminished future job prospects.         

Now, an offshore wind energy project, a joint effort between Talisman Energy Inc., a Canadian oil and gas company, with Scottish & Southern Energy PLC, a utility, has begun plans to build a 200 turbine wind farm that would produce enough energy for one million people, one-fifth of Scotland’s population.        

Scotland has around 25% of Europe’s wind-energy resources and some of the continent’s best potential wind, wave, and tidal sites. The Pentland Firth, a strait between North Scotland and the Orkney islands, has been called “the Saudi Arabia” of tidal power.

The project, which has started with the installation of two of the world’s biggest wind turbines in the Moray Firth, is being closely watched not only for its energy producing potential but also for its potential to offer employment to the.