SSE Renewables has, with its Scotwind lease sale partners Marubeni Corporation and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, signed the Option Agreement with Crown Estate Scotland.
The Option Agreement signing follows the partnership's successful bid earlier this year in the ScotWind offshore wind seabed leasing round, for the rights to 858 square kilometers of seabed that will support the development of a new giant floating offshore wind farm offshore Scotland.
According to SSE, the 858 sq km offshore lease area is one of the largest awarded by Crown Estate Scotland to any ScotWind bidder.
The project is located in the E1 Zone in the Firth of Forth off the Angus Coast. The site is suitable for the deployment of floating offshore wind turbines to deliver up to 2.6GW of new installed capacity – enough to be capable of powering almost 4.3 million Scottish homes and offsetting around 5 million tonnes of harmful carbon emissions each year, SSE said.
"A significant amount of pre-award survey work was undertaken by the SSE Renewables-Marubeni-CIP team and now a major new geophysical survey commenced last week. A team from Ocean Infinity, being mobilised from Montrose, will embark on a 100-day mission to collect approximately 5,300 line kilometers of geophysical and bathymetric data along with benthic sampling. The team will conduct their work from the dedicated survey vessel, the Northern Maria," SSE said.
Other work underway includes the start of the second year of Baseline Ornithological and Marine Mammal Aerial Surveys, as well as co-ordination and mobilising wider regional eastern aerial surveys in co-operation with other East 1 and East 2 ScotWind developers.
"It is great to have a signed option agreement for our project, the result of a huge amount of work from our team. Progress is really ramping up and critical work like our geophysical survey which is underway will support our consenting plans allowing us to understand ground conditions and environmental habitats over our lease area. We are looking forward to continuing to utilise the strength of our partnership with Marubeni and CIP to deliver up to 2.6GW of new floating offshore wind," David Hinselwood, senior project manager at SSE Renewables
"We are very proud to be part of this pivotal offshore wind project that will ensure the supply of renewable energy to so many homes. The ScotWind development is a real milestone for the industry, not only because of the role it will play in the UK’s transition to renewable energy, but because it is the first major, full-scale floating offshore wind project, and one which we’re very excited to be involved with at this crucial, formative stage," Nils Invarson, commercial lead at Ocean Infinity said.
First generation from the planned floating offshore wind farm is expected by the end of the decade.