Scotland's offshore wind capacity is set to skyrocket this decade as a number of developments get underway. 

The Scottish Government is aiming for 11GW of power created solely by wind turbines off the cost of the country. 

The UK is already driving the offshore wind revolution in Europe, having developed a number of offshore wind farms since the early 2000s. 

Almost 28GW of power will be developed through the ScotWind leasing process alone. 

Here is a closer look at the current and some prospective offshore wind farm developments.

READ MORE: Gathering wind: How much power is offshore wind set to deliver?

Where is Scotland's offshore wind?

For an idea of where the farm will be situated have a look at the map below. The symbols are sized by the energy capacity of each development. 

Of course, this map does not even include the massive 17 ScotWind developments.

 

 

Some of the smaller capacity wind farm are demonstrator sites for experimental turbines such as Methil Offshore Wind Turbine. 

Some wind farms in development will make major strides toward increasing the overall energy capacity with many exceeding 1000mV or 1 GV. 

But how does that capacity convert to Scotland's energy consumption? 

While some developers may advertise the farm in terms of homes it can power, the average consumption figure used may make it difficult to compare.

Based on a minimum projected 50% wind load factor and a 2021 UK Government estimate that the average Scottish household consumes 3520kWh in a year, we were able to calculate a consistent figure for how many homes could be powered by each development

 

Offshore wind is becoming increasingly utilised across Europe. Here is how the UK overall measure up against other countries. 

That, however, does not give us much insight into Scotland itself. Here is a look at some of the more notable development within Scottish offshore wind so far. 

What about ScotWind? 

 

ScotWind is a programme by which areas of Scotland's seabed are leased out for wind farm developments. 

It is hoped that the programme alone will ensure 25GW of capacity over the next decade.

The first leasing round saw 17 projects selected out of 74 applications - with the projects covering just over 7,000 kilometres squared. 

A clearing process opened on April 26 this year, with a further three bids confirmed as of November 2. 

The application forms for these additional three areas east of Shetland have not been published to the Crown Estate Scotland site yet and their commitment pledges remain unclear. 

 

However, for the first 17 ScotWind areas, developers have pledged certain amounts of their expenditure will be spent in Scotland. 

Only one development, Area 12, is set to spend more than half of its total spending through all development and operational stages within Scotland. 

Where will the ScotWind developments be located? Here is a map showing each of the ScotWind developments in comparison to existing and planned offshore wind farms throughout Scotland.