- Once the option agreements are signed, Crown Estate Scotland will collect about £262 million in option fees from the 13 developments. With the completion and operation of the projects, it will earn more money.
In a first-of-its-kind seabed leasing round in Scotland, 13 offshore wind projects totaling around 5.5 GW of capacity have been chosen to help decarbonize offshore oil and gas platforms in the North Sea and promote innovation.
Out of 19 applications, 13 projects have received initial agreements as a consequence of Crown Estate Scotland’s Innovation and Targeted Oil & Gas (INTOG) leasing process. The Innovation category, which is for small-scale innovative initiatives of up to 100 MW, featured five projects with a combined proposed capacity of up to around 500 MW. The so-called exclusivity agreements were made available to eight projects totaling 5 GW in the Targeted Oil and Gas (TOG) segment. The floating wind technology will be used in all 13 projects.
The developers will be able to start offshore wind development work after signing the exclusivity agreements while Marine Scotland completes its planning process for the INTOG Sectoral Marine Plan (INTOG SMP). The following step, which is anticipated to take place in 2024, is the signing of option contracts with initiatives that are included in the final INTOG SMP. After that, the projects might move on to the planning, approval, and finance phases.
Crown Estate Scotland will collect about £262 million in option fees from the 13 developments once the option agreements are signed. With completion and operation of the projects, it will earn more money.
The majority of the anticipated capacity in this lease phase is provided by UK green energy infrastructure provider Cerulean Winds. On its three sites, the business collaborates with Frontier Power International. The founding director of Cerulean Winds, Dan Jackson, said, “Our development represents a multi-billion pound investment to produce one of the largest offshore floating wind installations, helping climate goals by removing tens of millions of tonnes of CO2 emissions from oil and gas production.”
To move quickly and scale the Scottish supply chain to take advantage of this tremendous opportunity, we are now cooperating with our partners, he continued.