Crown Estate Scotland has announced the results of its ScotWind offshore wind leasing round, awarding options agreements to 17 projects with a combined capacity of 24.8GW.
They include ten floating offshore wind projects with a total capacity of 14.6GW.
ScotWind is the first Scottish offshore wind leasing round in over a decade and the first since the management of offshore wind rights were devolved to Scotland.
Crown Estate Scotland received 74 applications for the up to 8,600km² of seabed available in the leasing round and has offered options agreements to 17 projects covering just over 7,000km². The successful applicants will pay just under £700 million in options fees, which will be passed to the Scottish government for public spending, to reserve rights to the seabed.
Simon Hodge, chief executive of Crown Estate Scotland, said: “Today’s results are a fantastic vote of confidence in Scotland’s ability to transform our energy sector. Just a couple of months after hosting COP26, we’ve now taken a major step towards powering our future economy with renewable electricity.
“In addition to the environmental benefits, this also represents a major investment in the Scottish economy, with around £700 million being delivered straight into the public finances and billions of pounds worth of supply chain commitments.
“The variety and scale of the projects that will progress onto the next stages shows both the remarkable progress of the offshore wind sector, and a clear sign that Scotland is set to be a major hub for the further development of this technology in the years to come.”
Crown Estate Scotland said if any project does not progress to signing a full agreement, the next highest scoring application will instead be offered an option.
| Map reference | Lead applicant | Option Fees | Technology | Total capacity (MW) |
| 1 | BP Alternative Energy Investments | £85,900,000 | Fixed | 2,907 |
| 2 | SSE Renewables | £85,900,000 | Floating | 2,610 |
| 3 | Falck Renewables | £28,000,000 | Floating | 1,200 |
| 4 | Shell New Energies | £86,000,000 | Floating | 2,000 |
| 5 | Vattenfall | £20,000,000 | Floating | 798 |
| 6 | DEME | £18,700,000 | Fixed | 1,008 |
| 7 | DEME | £20,000,000 | Floating | 1,008 |
| 8 | Falck Renewables | £25,600,000 | Floating | 1,000 |
| 9 | Ocean Winds | £42,900,000 | Fixed | 1,000 |
| 10 | Falck Renewables | £13,400,000 | Floating | 500 |
| 11 | Scottish Power Renewables | £68,400,000 | Floating | 3,000 |
| 12 | BayWa | £33,000,000 | Floating | 960 |
| 13 | Offshore Wind Power | £65,700,000 | Fixed | 2,000 |
| 14 | Northland Power | £3,900,000 | Floating | 1,500 |
| 15 | Magnora | £10,300,000 | Mixed | 495 |
| 16 | Northland Power | £16,100,000 | Fixed | 840 |
| 17 | Scottish Power Renewables | £75,400,000 | Fixed | 2,000 |
| Totals | £699,200,000 | 24,826 |
Melanie Onn, deputy chief executive of Renewable UK, said: “Today’s announcement marks the start of a new era for the UK’s world-leading offshore wind industry. ScotWind represents one of the country’s biggest ever steps towards net zero.
“To put this landmark into context, the 25 gigawatts of new capacity announced today is two and a half times the UK’s entire current offshore wind capacity. It’s also equal to the entire current operational offshore wind capacity for the whole of Europe.
“It will scale up our ability to slash emissions exponentially. In the long term, it will also help to reduce the UK’s vulnerability to international gas prices which are hurting consumers.”
She added: “It’s highly significant that 60% of the new capacity announced today is for floating offshore wind projects. This will secure the UK’s lead in innovative floating wind, generating enormous amounts of power from the best wind resources in Europe, as well as creating opportunities for us to export our cutting-edge technology worldwide.”
The 2.9GW Marwen project being developed by a comprised of BP and EnBW is the largest to secure an agreement. They will pay almost £86 million in option fees to reserve the rights to nearly 860km² of seabed around 60 kilometres off the coast Aberdeen for the fixed-bottom project.
BP chief executive Bernard Looney said: “BP has a proud 100-year history in Scotland. We want to thank Crown Estate Scotland for the opportunity to now start a new chapter, helping Scotland continue as a global energy leader for the next 100 years. We have a fantastic partner in EnBW and now an even more competitive portfolio of nearly 6GW of combined offshore wind to develop together.
“Our plans go much further than just the turbines offshore. They see us investing in projects and in people — from EV charging to green hydrogen — aligned with Scotland’s energy transition plans. This is good business — making disciplined investments and demonstrating what an integrated energy company can do; we can’t wait to get to work.”
A consortium comprised of SSE, Marubeni Corporation and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) will also pay nearly £86 million to reserve the rights for a 2.6GW floating offshore wind project covering a similar area of seabed. It is the largest floating wind project to secure an agreement and will be located near the 1.1GW Seagreen offshore wind farm that SSE is currently constructing off the coast of Angus.
Stephen Wheeler, managing director of SSE Renewables, said: “We’re delighted to have been successful in winning our preferred site in the highly competitive ScotWind process, which is testament to the strength of our partnership with Marubeni and CIP. Together, our unique blend of local experience with global expertise mean we are now set to deliver up to 2.6GW of new offshore wind under ScotWind.
“SSE is playing a major role in delivering Scotland’s offshore wind ambitions for 2030 and beyond, with construction of Seagreen in the near term, development of Berwick Bank and now this ScotWind project which will be one of the largest floating wind sites in the world.
“These projects form a core part of SSE’s recently announced Net Zero acceleration programme which will see a trebling of the company’s renewables capacity by 2031.”
Scottish Power secured seabed rights for three projects with a total capacity 7GW. They consist of two floating projects being developed in partnership with Shell – the 3GW Marram project off the north east coast of Scotland and the 2GW Campion project off the east coast of Scotland – as well as a 2GW fixed-bottom solo project called Marchair off the coast of Islay.
Keith Anderson, chief executive of Scottish Power, said: “It’s absolutely brilliant to get the green light to develop new floating technology in partnership with Shell, while expanding our renewables presence in Argyll and Bute into the offshore industry.
Offshore wind is set to become the backbone of the UK’s energy mix and will do the heavy lifting as we ramp up the production of clean electricity on the journey to Net Zero. Our ScotWind projects will play a massive part in that and make the best use of our fantastic natural resources to help power the UK’s transition from fossil fuels to renewables and a better future, quicker.
He continued: “This is a pivotal moment that will reinforce the UK’s position as the global leader in offshore wind and boost the UK economy, with Scottish Power right at the heart of that transformation.”
Last month, the application wind opened for the fourth competitive Contracts for Difference allocation round, which is offering annual subsidies of up to £285 million and is expected to award agreements to around 12GW of low-carbon generation capacity.