Flotation Energy and Vargronn have signed exclusivity agreements for two floating offshore wind farms totalling 1900MW under Crown Estate Scotland’s Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) leasing round.
When completed, the sites will provide renewable electricity to oil and gas platforms, aiming to significantly reduce carbon emissions from the assets they supply.
Green Volt and Cenos will also provide electricity to the UK grid.
“Our Green Volt and Cenos projects will play a critical role in speeding up the energy transition, strengthening Scotland’s position as a global leader in floating wind,” said Flotation Energy chief executive Nicol Stephen.
Participating oil and gas platforms will have electricity, currently generated by gas and diesel turbines, replaced by renewable energy.
The wind farms will also deliver up to 7TWh of power back to the UK grid each year.
Vargronn chief executive Olav Hetland said: “Our pioneering projects play a key role in the energy transition.
“They have a direct impact by delivering renewable energy, but crucially Green Volt and Cenos are also advancing the offshore wind industry by scaling floating wind technology far beyond the size of current projects.
“By being frontrunner projects, which are already well advanced in terms of their development and the required environmental assessments, Green Volt and Cenos will contribute to establishing a new supply chain for floating offshore wind around the North Sea.”
RenewableUK’s senior policy analyst on emerging technologies Laurie Heyworth added: “Our analysis shows that floating wind will provide more than half of the UK’s offshore wind generation by 2050, bringing over £43bn in economic value and more than 29,000 jobs.
“It will play a critical role in regenerating coastal communities in particular, with £4 billion of public and private investment needed to transform up to eleven ports across the UK into industrial hubs for mass roll-out of floating wind by the end of the decade.”
Combined, Green Volt and Cenos are estimated to create over 8000 jobs during construction as well as several hundred jobs during the operational phase, delivering around £6bn of gross value added.