Crown Estate Scotland has increased the maximum option fee for ScotWind offshore wind sites tenfold but has opted against a Round 4-style auction.
The seabed agency has set the top option fee for a site at £100,000 per square kilometre, up from the original £10,000, following a review sparked by the outcome of leasing south of the border earlier this year.
A total of 8,600km2 of Scottish seabed is potentially available for development. Funds will be returned to the Scottish Government for public spending to drive the green recovery and help deliver Government priorities.
Meanwhile, CES said the threshold of Supply Chain Development Statement commitments that applicants must meet to request a lease has also been increased from 10% to 25%.
Meanwhile, further change of control provisions will apply to resale of options awarded.
Additional technical information will be published by the end of April to allow registered applicants to progress their interest in ScotWind Leasing, CES said.
The closing date for applications will be 16 July 2021, replacing the original end-March deadline.
CES chair Amanda Bryan said: “This rapid review was undertaken to reflect the recent changes we have seen in the UK offshore wind market so that we could arrive at a pricing structure which properly reflects those changes.
“Throughout the development of ScotWind Leasing we have sought to secure best value for communities and help place Scotland as a competitive destination for the investment needed to turn potential projects in to reality. This review achieves both of these goals.”
Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse said the measures balance the increasing value and demand for Scottish seabed with the need to secure a strong offshore wind supply chain which can power our green recovery from COVID-19.
Scottish Renewables chief executive Claire Mack said she is pleased that Crown Estate Scotland has delivered these changes within a matter of weeks, keeping the process on track for the majority of developers.
“It is now for those individual developers to decide if the new price of these leases reflects their assessment of the value of the contracts which they will need to secure from the UK Government,” she added.