WATCH: Viking passes turbine base milestone

The developers of the Viking Energy windfarm have highlighted the completion of the 103 turbine bases.

Viking says the job of pouring concrete for the 103 turbine bases at the Viking Energy windfarm took place on Saturday.

It comes 14 months after the concrete pour process first began.

Since then, over 70,246m³ of concrete has been poured across the 103 foundations.

Concrete was produced from two batching plants created on site, due to the high volumes required.

Each concrete pour, on average, took 11 hours to complete, with over 30 people involved in each concrete pour from start to finish.

The construction process involved teams excavating material from site, before installing the reinforcement which was then followed by the pouring of concrete.

Once the concrete had cured, the base was then backfilled with the excavated material, leaving only the centre ring showing, ready for the turbine tower to be bolted on.

In early 2023, the next phase of the project will begin with the arrival of the 4.3MW Vestas turbines on site. The turbines will have a maximum tip height of 155m.

Last week it emerged trace metals from the Viking site were found in the nearby Burn of Lunklet.

SSE admitted to The Shetland Times there had been an “increase in certain metals/minerals detected in certain water sample points”.