INTERNATIONAL energy sector heavyweights have underlined their belief in the potential to develop floating windfarms successfully off Scotland in projects they reckon could generate big economic benefits for the country.
Renewable energy specialist Invenergy and oil services giant BW Offshore confirmed they submitted bids in the landmark ScotWind offshore licensing round, which closed to applications in July.
The companies said they had formed a joint venture that would focus on developing both floating and fixed foundation offshore wind projects off the north east coast of Scotland. They said the projects they are considering are expected to bring billions of pounds of investment to the Scottish and UK supply chain.
“The projects are also expected to create substantial high value specialised jobs, both direct and indirect, within Scotland, that would provide a considerable economic contribution to Scotland for decades to come,” the companies added, without providing further details.
The announcement offers a further indication of the scale of the interest generated by the ScotWind licensing round, which is being run by Crown Estate Scotland.
The round is the first offshore wind auction to cover acreage off Scotland for a decade.
READ MORE: Glasgow-based energy giant bids for ScotWind licences with oil and gas major
A range of giants drawn from the oil and gas, power generation and finance sectors submitted bids for licences, including ScottishPower, SSE, BP and Shell.
Participants have appeared keen to play up the potential for the projects they are planning to deliver economic benefits for Scotland.
Crown Estate Scotland required applicants to submit supply chain development statements.
BP has said it plans to develop an offshore centre of excellence in Aberdeen. This week it held out the prospect the centre could help create 120 jobs.
READ MORE: ScotWind auction heats up as Italian heavyweight enters fray
Chicago-based Invenergy has developed renewable energy facilities around the world, including two onshore windfarms in Scotland. It is developing a windfarm in Ayrshire.
BW Offshore supplies floating production storage and offloading vessels used by oil and gas firms. It has headquarters in Oslo.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel