Two large clean energy projects have been completed on the Shetland Islands, providing enough power to the mainland to light the equivalent of 500,000 homes by renewable energy.

Energy giants SSE announced the completion of the project, considered one of the most productive onshore wind farms in the UK, as well as a 260 kilometre (160 mile) subsea link to take power from the island to mainland Scotland.

The Viking Windfarm consists of 103 turbines, with the capacity to generate 443 megawatts, with the blades expected to spin year round in the windiest part of the UK to produce around 1.8 terawatt-hours (TWh) of renewable electricity annually.

SSE said that the completion of the Viking Wind Farm and the subsea transmission link represented a £1 billion investment by the company as part of its £20.5 billion commitment to UK clean energy infrastructure by 2027.

Alistair Phillips-Davies, SSE chief executive, said: “Shetland and the wider North Sea have long supported the country’s energy security and now they are playing a significant role in decarbonising our power system.

“But it has taken nearly two decades for these projects to move from concept to completion and if we are serious about delivering clean power by 2030 – less than 2,000 days away – we need to make it much easier and faster to build this kind of mission-critical infrastructure.”

In January this year, the Scottish Government reported that renewable technologies generated the equivalent of 113% of Scotland’s overall electricity consumption in 2022, a 26% increase compared to 2021.

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Scottish Development International has described Scotland as the ‘windbreak of Europe’ with over 3.5GW of offshore wind already operational or under construction and 6.4GW in the pipeline, with plans to utilise £3 billion green investment projects and clean technologies to transition to a carbon neutral economy by 2045.

Speaking on the completion of the Viking project, the first minister, John Swinney, said: “These developments will not only aid us in our efforts to decarbonise our energy system, but help to stimulate sustainable economic growth in the local area.

“It is welcome that Scotland’s onshore wind capacity continues to expand. This is a vital component of our mission to bring about a just transition to net zero.”

According to the results of a new poll from Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce, more than half of the population across Scotland support the building of new energy transmission infrastructure such as the Viking windfarm project in an effort to reach the net zero target.