SIC projecting £550k income from Viking wind farm this year
SHETLAND Islands Council (SIC) is projecting to receive £550,000 in rent income from the Viking wind farm this financial year.
The SIC owns the Busta Estate in the northern reaches of the wind farm site, which hosts 18 of the 103 turbines.
The income was raised during a meeting of the SIC’s policy and resources committee on Monday morning.
A report on the SIC’s projected financial position for 2026/27 said there was set to be £150,000 less income from Viking than budgeted.
This was because the amount previously budgeted for in 2026/27 was based on “limited information” available at the time.
The projection has now been revised to £550,000, which reflects the amount received for 2025/26.
Lerwick South councillor Dennis Leask sought to clarify what the reduction in budgeted income was, suggesting there could be some confusion that it could be related to community benefit.
Finance manager Paul Fraser responded by saying his understanding was that it relates to ground rent.
He said there are two parts to this – one that is fixed, and another which is throughput-related.
The latter means that as activity increases, so does the rent.
Fraser told councillors that it was his understanding that this is shared between the SIC and any crofters using the land.
“This effectively is commercial rent and clearly not community benefit in any way,” he said.
The council is one of 14 landowners who have long-term agreements with wind farm developer SSE.
Speaking in January, Fraser said the SIC receives £177,000 a year in basic land rent, with the rest made up via the throughput element.
Separately, around £2.2 million a year is paid to Shetland Community Benefit Fund to be distributed to local projects.
However SSE received nearly £10 million in constraint payments relating to Viking in 2025.
These payments are given to companies when they are asked to reduce their output because energy cannot be used by the National Grid, such as during bottleneck periods.
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