Bells Brae pupil wins offshore windfarm naming competition

ESB has found a new name for its offshore windfarm.

A pupil from Bells Brae primary school in Lerwick has won a competition to name a 500MW floating windfarm off the coast of Shetland.

The project – formerly called Sealtainn – will now be named Stoura windfarm.

The competition winner selected the name as they said it was an old Shetland word which could mean both “windy” and “wide open space”.

All primary school children in Shetland were invited to enter the competition between 19th September and 8th October, with four local judges deciding on the winner.

Irish energy company ESB, who are behind the windfarm project, gave £1,250 to the lucky winning pupil.

ESB said the winner had generously decided to share that prize fund with their classmates and a local charity, with ESB matching that donation.

Stoura windfarm project director Cian Desmon said they were “blown away by the quality of entries” from young Shetlanders.

“This made the task of selecting an overall winner very difficult,” he said.

“In the end, we are delighted with the name Stoura which has strong links to the local landscape, Shetland dialect and the windy, exposed nature of the site.”