Crown Estate Scotland has announced the outcome of its application process for ScotWind leasing – the first Scottish offshore wind round in more than a decade.
In all, 17 projects have been selected out of a total of 74 applications, and have now been offered option agreements which reserve the rights to specific areas of seabed.
A total of £699.2m will be paid by the successful applicants in option fees and passed to the Scottish Government for public spending.
The area of seabed covered by the 17 projects is just over 7,000km2.
Initial indications suggest a multi-billion pound supply chain investment in Scotland, while the potential power generated will provide for the expanding electrification of the Scottish economy as it moves towards net zero emissions.
Most of the sites are on the East, North East or Northern coast, with just one on the West side of Scotland.
Shell New Energies is the lead applicant on the most expensive development, off the coast of Aberdeen, estimated to cost £86m in option fees.
A site in the North East led by Scottish Power Renewables has the highest capacity, with 3,000 megawatts expected to be produced.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said that while the total impact on the supply chain and on the number of jobs created will not be known until later in the process, there is “every reason to be optimistic” about the employment prospects of the developments.
The ScotWind projects that have been selected are:
Map reference |
Lead applicant |
Option Fees |
Technology |
Total capacity (MW) |
1 |
BP Alternative Energy Investments |
£85,900,000 |
Fixed |
2,907 |
2 |
SSE Renewables |
£85,900,000 |
Floating |
2,610 |
3 |
Falck Renewables |
£28,000,000 |
Floating |
1,200 |
4 |
Shell New Energies |
£86,000,000 |
Floating |
2,000 |
5 |
Vattenfall |
£20,000,000 |
Floating |
798 |
6 |
DEME |
£18,700,000 |
Fixed |
1,008 |
7 |
DEME |
£20,000,000 |
Floating |
1,008 |
8 |
Falck Renewables |
£25,600,000 |
Floating |
1,000 |
9 |
Ocean Winds |
£42,900,000 |
Fixed |
1,000 |
10 |
Falck Renewables |
£13,400,000 |
Floating |
500 |
11 |
Scottish Power Renewables |
£68,400,000 |
Floating |
3,000 |
12 |
BayWa |
£33,000,000 |
Floating |
960 |
13 |
Offshore Wind Power |
£65,700,000 |
Fixed |
2,000 |
14 |
Northland Power |
£3,900,000 |
Floating |
1,500 |
15 |
Magnora |
£10,300,000 |
Mixed |
495 |
16 |
Northland Power |
£16,100,000 |
Fixed |
840 |
17 |
Scottish Power Renewables |
£75,400,000 |
Fixed |
2,000 |
| Totals | |
£699,200,000 | |
24,826 |
|---|
Simon Hodge, chief executive of Crown Estate Scotland, said: “Today’s results are a fantastic vote of confidence in Scotland’s ability to transform our energy sector.
“In addition to the environmental benefits, this also represents a major investment in the Scottish economy, with around £700m being delivered straight into the public finances and billions of pounds worth of supply chain commitments.
“The variety and scale of the projects that will progress onto the next stages shows both the remarkable progress of the offshore wind sector, and a clear sign that Scotland is set to be a major hub for the further development of this technology in the years to come.”
Should any application not progress to signing a full agreement, the next highest scoring application will instead be offered an option.
Once these agreements are officially signed, the details of the supply chain commitments made by the applicants as part of their Supply Chain Development Statements will be published.
This is just the first stage of the long process these projects will have to go through before turbines go into the water, as the projects evolve through consenting, financing and planning stages.
The bids were lodged for 15 areas of seabed – including the North Sea to the East of Angus, the east of Shetland West of Orkney and the outer Moray Firth.
Scotland’s single largest source of renewable energy is the Moray East project in the outer Moray Firth, with a capacity of 950MW from 100 offshore turbines, and CES hopes as much as 10GW of new capacity could be built over the next decade.
ScottishPower has been awarded the seabed rights to develop three new offshore wind farms off the coast of Scotland – including two new floating wind farms being developed in conjunction with Shell.
The projects - with a total capacity of 7GW - will more than treble ScottishPower’s existing offshore wind pipeline from 3.1GW to 10.1GW. They comprise:
- MarramWind joint venture (in partnership with Shell) off the North East coast of Scotland (3GW floating).
- CampionWind joint venture (in partnership with Shell) off the East Coast of Scotland (2GW floating).
- MachairWind project off the coast of Islay (ScottishPower only 2GW fixed).
Keith Anderson, chief executive of ScottishPower, said: “This is a pivotal moment that will reinforce the UK’s position as the global leader in offshore wind and boost the UK economy, with ScottishPower right at the heart of that transformation.
“We look forward to working with Shell and our supply chain partners to make that happen – come and talk to us now.”
The joint venture between Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (GIG), TotalEnergies and RIDG has secured rights in the N1 area to develop a 2 GW offshore wind farm project in the ScotWind leasing round. The West of Orkney Windfarm will be located 30km off the West coast of Orkney in Scotland.
Mark Dooley, global head of GIG, said: “We have been a long-term investor in the UK offshore wind sector, with an established Scottish footprint – and we are delighted that our commitment to these markets has been recognised.
“We believe this option agreement will be truly transformational for the wider Scottish economy, unlocking new ways to accelerate the transition to net zero and creating hundreds of green jobs.”
The Falck Renewables and BlueFloat Energy partnership was successful in three of its bids.
Two of the partnership’s proposed projects - a site east of Aberdeen in Plan Option E1 and a site north of Fraserburgh in Plan Option NE6 have been granted leases - along with a proposed site east of Caithness in Plan Option NE3, which will be developed by a consortium of Falck Renewables, BlueFloat Energy and Ørsted.
Carlos Martin, chief executive of BlueFloat Energy, said: “We have already carried out extensive work on mapping out the Scottish supply chain and now look forward to ensuring we work with as many local companies as possible.”
Gordon MacDougall, managing director of Baywa r.e. UK and leader of the Floating Energy Allyance, which has secured an option agreement for NE8, a site around 75km to the northeast of Fraserburgh, said: “We are delighted that the partnership’s unique breadth and depth of capability and expertise has been recognised.
“The project would be one of the world’s largest floating offshore wind farms when built, helping to meet Scotland’s net zero target and putting the country at the very forefront of the global growth of this new technology.
“It also has the potential to support thousands of jobs here in Scotland during construction and several hundred direct and indirect jobs on an ongoing basis over its lifetime.”
Louise Gilmour, Scotland secretary at the GMB union, commented: “After the abject failure of the last decade on offshore wind manufacturing, progress will be judged on the number of jobs and scale of investment this leasing round brings to Scotland.
“But let’s be clear there are no guarantees – the list of successful applicants includes firms that have off-shored tens of thousands of green manufacturing jobs to the rest of the world in previous projects.
“This is a massive test of the renewables industry’s environmental and social justice credentials, and the last chance saloon for political leaders who have promised a green jobs revolution for years.”
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