Ocean Winds and Aker plan 6GW Scottish floating offshore wind – Windpower Monthly

Ocean Winds and Aker Offshore Wind submitted bids to develop 6GW of floating offshore wind projects in Scotlands recent leasing round, the companies have announced.

The pair aims to build the capacity in the outer Moray Firth, off Scotland's north-east coast.

They would use the semi-submersible floating platforms developed by Principle Power, in which the two companies own majority a majority stake.

Ocean Winds has helped to develop 950MW of operational offshore wind capaity off Scotland andis developing a further 860MW, while Aker launched its offshore wind unit in 2020 to target renewable energy.

Meanwhile, the Thistle Wind Partners (TWP) consortium, comprising Belgian renewables developers Deme Concessions and Aspiravi International, plus French clean energy company Qair Marine, has also announced they entered the Scotwind tender.

TWP has not confirmed how much offshore wind capacity it bid for or whether it plans to use fixed-bottom foundations of floating platforms. The auction regulator believes the auction could see leases awarded capable of supporting up to 10GW of offshore wind capacity.

Scotlands offshore wind leasing round closed for submissions in July, and the regulator is expected to announce the results in early 2022.

Competition in the ScotWind tender will be tough.

Trios of TotalEnergies, the Green Investment Group and the Renewable Infrastructure Development Group, SSE Renewables, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Marubeni Corporation and rsted, Falck Renewables and BlueFloat Energy, and pairings of Vattenfall and Fred Olsen Renewables, BP and German utility EnBW, ScottishPower and Shell, Simply Blue Energy and Subsea 7, Ideol and Aker Solutions, Invenergy and BW Offshore as well as Eni and Red Rock Power had also all announced their intention to bid. RWE and Equinor have also submitted standalone bids.

The Crown Estate Scotland is expected to announce the results of this round of ScotWind leasing in early 2022.

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Ocean Winds and Aker plan 6GW Scottish floating offshore wind - Windpower Monthly