Ocean Winds and Aker Offshore Wind have entered into a partnership to develop floating wind projects off Scotland.
The companies, which are already partners in California, the US, and South Korea, will join forces to bid in the ScotWind leasing round.
The two companies will jointly submit the bid by 16 July to Crown Estate Scotland.
Ocean Winds managing director Dan Finch said: “Aker Offshore Wind is an ideal complement to Ocean Winds with synergies that make this partnership stronger than the sum of its parts.
“Aker brings five decades of offshore experience in the oil and gas industry together with expertise and competence to industrialise and scale new floating offshore technology.”
Ocean Winds is a 50:50 partnership of Engie and EDPR.
“Aker has a history of transitioning and delivering marine industry capabilities, technology, and digital innovation from Scotland to manage and de-risk offshore projects.
“In Ocean Winds we have a partner which has delivered Moray East, Scotland´s largest wind farm yet.
“Adding to that Aker’s offshore fabrication competencies and strong supply chain partnerships, the consortium is perfectly positioned to take this important step for Scotland in the transition to renewable energy,” said Kristian Rokke, chairman of Aker Offshore Wind.
Aker has been involved in the design and delivery of more than half of the world’s semi-submersible floating offshore installations.
The partners said their combined majority ownership of Principle Power will reinforce their offering.
Finch added: “Ocean Winds has a long history of project delivery in the Moray Firth, having brought the 950MW Moray East – Scotland’s biggest windfarm – from concept to generation.
“More than a decade ago, we had the vision of commercial scale generation in deeper water, further from shore, using bigger turbines than the available technology of the day. Now we are delivering that vision in the Moray Firth.”