Salamander: A stepping stone to scale for offshore wind in Scotland

Delivering floating offshore wind on a global scale is critical to Ørsted’s vision of creating a world that runs entirely on green energy.

It will allow us to tap into as much as 80 percent of the world’s offshore wind resource, placing turbines in areas previously inaccessible due to water depths. 

The ability to install turbines in waters deeper than 60 metres on floating platforms will open-up vast new geographic regions and enormous markets for offshore wind – from 
Scotland to the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.

By the mid-2030’s, it’s estimated that as much as 20% or more of new offshore wind could be floating.

In order to get to that impactful scale – we need to create the building blocks of a global industry. 

That’s exactly what Ørsted and our joint venture partners Simply Blue Group and Subsea7 are delivering with Salamander, our 100MW floating offshore wind project off the northeast coast of Scotland. 

Designed as a stepping-stone project for technology developers, supply chains and stakeholders, Salamander will enable the vital learnings, risk mitigation, and cost reductions critical to prepare for the commercial scale build-out of floating offshore wind.

A key stepping-stone to scale    
Salamander was recently awarded a 100MW innovation seabed lease as part of the Crown Estate Scotland’s Innovation and Targeted Oil & Gas (INTOG) leasing round.  

The award comes on the heels of the ScotWind leasing round which saw Crown Estate Scotland grant seabed rights for almost 28GW of new commercial scale offshore wind projects, 17GW of which are for proposed floating offshore wind farms.

Most of the floating offshore wind farms are large scale projects of about 1GW each and are expected to become operational from 2030.  

Salamander is designed specifically to help the Scottish supply chain prepare for the industrial scale build-out coming through ScotWind and beyond.   

The real prize for Scotland is to grasp first-mover advantage and establish a strong local supply chain that can go on to service projects right across the world, much in the way that the oil and gas supply chain has for decades.

In fact, it is many of these same companies in the oil and gas supply chain which now have an opportunity to transition into floating offshore wind, creating long-term green jobs.

We’ve put together a dynamic partnership to deliver this innovative project and those supply chain gains 35km off the coast of Peterhead. 

• Ørsted, the world’s leading offshore wind developer, has 30 years of experience developing, building, owning, and operating more offshore wind farms than any other company.
   
• Simply Blue Group, headquartered in Cork, Ireland, is a leading blue economy developer focused on replacing fossil fuels with clean ocean energy. It develops pioneering blue economy projects, predominantly floating offshore wind, however it is also involved in e-Fuels, wave energy, low-impact aquaculture, CDR, and seaweed farming and has a global pipeline of floating offshore wind in over 14 countries.
   
• Subsea7, a global leader in the delivery of offshore projects and services, is helping to facilitate the sustainable transition of the evolving energy industry and has installed over 10GW of offshore wind infrastructure to date.

A learning journey 
With a strong focus on supply chain development, Salamander will play a crucial role in bringing down costs and accelerating the technology’s full-scale deployment.

The project has been specifically designed as an opportunity to test floating technology, installation approaches, and co-location with other sea users ahead of the larger buildout.

We are committed to developing a sustainable project and working in conjunction with local communities and other ocean users. 

The 100MW project will offer critical learnings because it is much more than just one or two demonstration turbines. 

The small array will require larger scale manufacturing, installation, operation, and maintenance. 

To counter some of the known challenges of developing floating wind at scale, Salamander will trial key innovations to support future commercial scale floating wind projects. 

Building up the supply chain and lowering costs will also help significantly de-risk investment in this new technology. 

It will allow Scotland to maximise the financial benefit of its strong offshore wind resource, generate long-term jobs for local communities and export its expertise globally as floating offshore wind reaches its potential. 

Salamander is designed specifically to help the Scottish supply chain prepare for the industrial build-out of floating offshore wind     

Building blocks   
Closer to home, projects like Salamander are critical to Scotland and the UK reaching their renewable energy targets. 

The Scottish government has set a target of 11GW of installed offshore wind by 2030. That will feed into the UK’s larger goal of 50GW of offshore wind by 2030 – including 5GW of floating offshore wind. 

These are ambitious, yet achievable goals – especially with projects like Salamander in the pipeline. We need to successfully implement sustainable, low-cost 100MW projects in order to scale up to 1GW projects and beyond. 

For Ørsted, Salamander dovetails perfectly with our other major floating project in Scotland – the 1GW Stromar project. The lessons learned, supply chains developed, and relationships built from Salamander will help us deliver Stromar.

At Ørsted, we know what it is like to grow and transform over time. During the last 30 years, we’ve transformed from one of Europe’s most fossil-fuel intensive utilities to being ranked one of the world’s most sustainable companies.

We’ve come a long way on our own path to net zero, but we’re far from done. We’re just getting started. 

Salamander is precisely the kind of instrumental project that will help get us where we need to go to deliver floating offshore wind as a global industry at scale. It will also bring us all one step closer to Scotland and the UK’s net-zero goals – and a world that runs entirely on green energy.