A consortium of Orsted, Falck Renewables and BlueFloat Energy has been awarded an option agreement for an up to 1GW floating offshore wind farm off the north-east coast of Scotland in the ScotWind leasing round.
The project will be located off Caithness, around 50km east of Wick and is Orsted’s first large-scale floating wind development project anywhere in the world.
The consortium has already started work with community ownership experts Energy4All on a new framework that will allow residents of Scotland and Scottish communities to share the financial benefits of the floating wind farms the consortium builds in the future.
It will also collaborate with Energy Skills Partnership Scotland to help train up a skilled workforce in time for construction to begin.
Research will be carried out with the Scottish Association for Marine Science to investigate the potential effects of floating wind developments on the marine environment.
Projects under discussion will examine how fishing interests and offshore wind can work together and study the interaction of fish, marine mammals and seabirds with floating offshore wind farms.
Orsted chief commercial officer and deputy group CEO Martin Neubert said: “I’m pleased that we have been given the opportunity, together with our partners Falck Renewables and BlueFloat Energy, to develop this project and compete in future floating wind tenders in Scotland with this gigawatt-scale lease.
“I commend Crown Estate Scotland for awarding lease rights at large scale and with focus on development phase commitments, which is exactly what is needed to allow for financially sustainable development and to make floating and deeper water wind cost-competitive.
“By securing this seabed lease area, we’re confirming our ambitions in floating offshore wind while expanding our offshore development pipeline and our long-term commitment to the UK.”
Orsted head of UK region Duncan Clark said: “We are pleased that our application has been selected by Crown Estate Scotland, an affirmation of our strategic decision to pursue floating wind opportunities and to drive the commercialisation of this exciting and rapidly developing new technology.
“We look forward to working with the consortium to bring together the special capabilities of each partner, enabling us to to jointly develop this project as quickly as possible to produce green power for Scotland.
“Scotland has some of the best offshore wind potential in the world and the ScotWind leasing round is a unique opportunity for Scotland to become a global leader in floating offshore wind.
“We look forward to working with Scottish businesses as we develop our offshore wind project, investing in the local supply chain and creating new jobs and skills that will leave a lasting legacy for communities around the country.”