By Scott Wright
THREE new offshore wind projects in an area east of Shetland have been given the go-ahead by the Crown Estate.
The projects, which have a common hydrogen focus, have been awarded to applicants in the ScotWind auction of seabed licences this year that met the technical requirements but missed out on their preferred location.
The three projects, awarded under the ScotWind clearing process, will cover an area of seabed covering just over 560 square kilometres between them, and have the capacity to generate 2.8 gigawatts of electricity. And their initial supply-chain commitments indicate an average of £1.2 billion investment in Scotland per GW of capacity built.
Colin Palmer, director of marine at Crown Estate Scotland, said: “This is a fantastic result for Shetland and for Scotland. These projects have significant potential to really boost Scotland’s progress towards its net-zero targets, including in relation to the opportunity around green hydrogen. Taking these three into account, the 20 ScotWind projects now total up to 27.6GW with initial supply chain commitments indicating an average of £1.4bn investment in Scotland per gigawatt of capacity built. This result is further proof that Scotland is leading globally on offshore wind, deploying new technology and exploiting the potential of hydrogen.”
A total of £56 million will be paid by the successful applicants in option fees and passed to the Scottish Government for public spending. The projects are currently expected to pay Crown Estate Scotland £4m per GW per year, which would also be paid to the Scottish Government.
The successful bidders, from 14 applications, include project partners Mainstream Renewable Power and Ocean Winds, which have been offered the opportunity to enter into an option agreement for an area with the potential for a 1.8GW wind farm.
Mainstream chief executive Mary Quaney said: “In Scotland we have already developed the 450MW Neart na Gaoithe offshore wind farm and we now look forward to working with all stakeholders to further develop and strengthen Scotland’s offshore wind industry and help position it a global leader in floating offshore wind power.”
The announcement was made as an offshore wind supply chain summit was held in Aberdeen.
with North Sea oil and gas veteran Sir Ian Wood and chaired by Michael Matheson, Cabinet Secretary for Energy. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon gave a keynote address.
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