Crown Estate Scotland (CES), acting on behalf of the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC), has awarded the Strategic Investment Model (SIM) programme manager contract to Arup.
The consultants will be supported by legal advisers Addleshaw Goddard.
The programme manager role is a critical element in the delivery of SOWEC’s SIM which seeks to identify investment priorities necessary to deliver the ScotWind pipeline and to maximise Scottish supply chain benefits.
The programme manager will now work with ScotWind developers between now and October 2023 to identify proposals with potential for collaborative investment as part of stage 1 of the SIM process.
In stage 2, interested developers, government, and other partners will work collaboratively on individual projects to get projects to final investment decision so that they can be in place and ready to support ScotWind projects later this decade.
SOWEC’s industry co-chair Brian McFarlane of SSE Renewables said: “All of Scotland’s offshore wind developers are committed to working together to grow the country’s supply chain.
“Every Scottish offshore wind project is ambitious about what can be achieved, but there are things we can better do together.
“This commitment to collaborate is what makes Scotland’s Strategic Investment Model potentially transformative in its ambition, and I’m delighted that we have Arup on board as programme manager to turn this into reality.”
Head of offshore wind development for Crown Estate Scotland Colin Maciver added: “The conclusion of the ScotWind leasing process was a hugely significant achievement, but it marks only the beginning of a long period of work, where success will depend on everyone involved in Scotland’s offshore wind industry working together.
“The Strategic Investment Model is vital to ensuring that we develop a co-ordinated approach to addressing challenges in delivering early investment, and that the undoubted benefits of offshore wind are maximised.”
With the programme manager in place, SOWEC, the Scottish Government and developers will work together to identify priority collaborative proposals by the end of October 2023.
Following this, a second stage of work will commence with developers and government then opting in to work alongside ports and other supply chain companies to establish how to bring these infrastructure investments forward so they are ready in time for ScotWind.