Ørsted, Falck Renewables, and BlueFloat Energy have won the seabed rights off the northeast coast of Scotland to an up to 1GW floating offshore wind site. This will be Ørsted’s first large-scale floating wind development project anywhere in the world. Falck and BlueFloat's two other proposals were also awarded the seabed rights.
For the Ørsted, Falck Renewables, and BlueFloat Energy partnership, the award for this floating wind site of up to 1GW in scale has been made through Crown Estate Scotland's ScotWind offshore wind leasing round.
The project will be located off Caithness, around 50 km east of Wick.
Martin Neubert, Chief Commercial Officer and Deputy Group CEO at Ørsted, says: “I’m pleased that we have been given the opportunity, together with our partners Falck Renewables and BlueFloat Energy, to develop this project and compete in future floating wind tenders in Scotland with this gigawatt-scale lease.“
"I commend Crown Estate Scotland for awarding lease rights at large scale and with focus on development phase commitments, which is exactly what is needed to allow for financially sustainable development and to make floating and deeper water wind cost-competitive. By securing this seabed lease area, we’re confirming our ambitions in floating offshore wind while expanding our offshore development pipeline and our long-term commitment to the UK.”
Duncan Clark, Head of Region UK at Ørsted, says: “We are pleased that our application has been selected by Crown Estate Scotland, an affirmation of our strategic decision to pursue floating wind opportunities and to drive the commercialization of this exciting and rapidly developing new technology. We look forward to working with the consortium to bring together the special capabilities of each partner, enabling us to to jointly develop this project as quickly as possible to produce green power for Scotland.
"Scotland has some of the best offshore wind potential in the world and the ScotWind leasing round is a unique opportunity for Scotland to become a global leader in floating offshore wind. We look forward to working with Scottish businesses as we develop our offshore wind project, investing in the local supply chain and creating new jobs and skills that will leave a lasting legacy for communities around the country.”
According to Ørsted, the consortium has already started work with community ownership experts Energy4All on a new framework which will allow residents of Scotland and Scottish communities to share the financial benefits of the floating wind farms the consortium builds in the future.
As part of the preparatory work to deliver the floating wind farm the consortium will collaborate with Energy Skills Partnership Scotland (ESP) to help train up a skilled workforce in time for construction to begin, Ørsted said.
Ørsted further said that research would be carried out with the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) to investigate the potential effects of floating wind developments on the marine environment. Projects under discussion will examine how fishing interests and offshore wind can work together and study the interaction of fish, marine mammals, and seabirds with floating offshore wind farms.
Falck, BlueFloat win two more
Apart from the winning bid in partnership with Ørsted, the Falck Renewables, and BlueFloat Energy partnership taking part in the current ScotWind offshore wind leasing round won two more bids.
Along with a proposed site east of Caithness secured with Ørsted, the Falck Renewables and BlueFloat Energy partnership has secured leases for their two other proposed projects – a site east of Aberdeen in Plan Option E1 and a site north of Fraserburgh in Plan Option NE6.
The three areas could accommodate a total of approximately 3.0 GW of offshore wind capacity with the projects scheduled to be operational by the end of the decade, subject to securing consent, commercial arrangements, and grid connections.
Carlos Martin, CEO of BlueFloat Energy, said: “The Scottish coastline is ideal for developing offshore wind projects and our team is thrilled to be given the opportunity to deploy our expertise to deliver these projects in Scotland. The potential for boosting the economy and reinforcing Scotland’s position at the forefront of the energy transition is huge. 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.”
Toni Volpe, CEO of Falck Renewables, said: “We are delighted that our applications have won the support of Crown Estate Scotland and that our offshore wind projects will be making a considerable contribution to providing Scotland with clean energy. Falck Renewables has a worldwide renewables portfolio and with our growth strategy we are on track to facilitate the global transition to a low carbon future.”