The ScotWind clearing round winners have put seabed option agreements in place for their 2.8GW of projects off the east coast of Shetland.
Ocean Winds and Mainstream Renewable Power’s 1.8GW Arven offshore wind farm, Ocean Winds’ separate 500MW project and a 500MW project put forward by Irish energy company ESB have reached the milestone.
Full seabed leases are granted at a later stage once applicants have the necessary consents from regulators, such as Marine Scotland, and have secured grid connections and financing.
There are now 20 ScotWind projects with option agreements confirmed. Together, these total up to 27.6GW of clean energy.
A total of £56m in option fees will be paid by the three successful applicants taking the total figure for ScotWind option fees for the 20 projects to £755m.
Once operating, projects will pay Crown Estate Scotland multi-million pound annual payments. These funds will be passed to the Scottish Government for public spending.
The addition of these three agreements concludes the ScotWind leasing round.
Colin Maciver, Head of Offshore Wind Development for Crown Estate Scotland, said: “Today’s confirmation of three more ScotWind agreements is extremely positive news. These projects will further boost delivery of clean offshore energy that is central to Scotland’s efforts to tackle the climate emergency, secure the UK’s energy supply, and generate billions of pounds of investment in Scotland. We look forward to working with all applicants in the years to come.”
Mainstream Renewable Power and Ocean Winds have signed a seabed lease agreement worth £36m to develop a 1.8GW floating offshore wind farm off the Shetland Islands, which they have named Arven.
The site output has the potential to power the equivalent of over 2m homes and save 3m tonnes of carbon emissions each year.
Sian Lloyd-Rees, UK Country Manager, for Mainstream Renewable Power, said: “We are thrilled to progress our plans for the Arven Offshore Wind Farm and, building on Mainstream’s Scottish development experience and the Aker group’s decades long offshore heritage in the North Sea, we are ready to take a leading role in industrialising floating offshore wind.
“Supporting the UK government’s Net Zero ambitions, the wind farm is well placed to capitalise on Scotland’s offshore expertise and industry as we work with local partners to explore offtake opportunities.”