Timescales and next steps for new offshore wind leasing for Scotland
Crown Estate Scotland has published an update on proposals for new offshore wind leasing in Scotland’s waters
Offshore wind
The Scottish Government’s proposed key energy target is that half of Scotland's heat, transport and electricity energy needs are met by renewables by 2030. The UK Government’s target is that 15% of energy used is from renewable sources by 2020.
Offshore wind generation has a key role in delivering against those targets and recent technological advances have seen offshore wind become cheaper to produce.
Crown Estate Scotland plays a critical role in the development of offshore wind. As well as awarding and managing leases we support developers through pre-planning and consenting to construction, and work with industry to tackle environmental and technical issues, reduce costs and build investor confidence.
Our partners include Marine Scotland, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Renewables, ORE Catapult and local authorities.
Robin Rigg in the Solway Firth, with 180MW of installed capacity, is currently the only commercial scale offshore wind farm in Scottish waters but there are several other sites in construction or in planning.
We have now started to consider if and how to issue new leasing rights for commercial-scale fixed and / or floating offshore wind projects (100 MW+). This will include engaging with local, Scottish and UK stakeholders in 2018 to understand their views on our proposed approach. We will provide more information on this shortly. If you would like to be added to our mailing list for occasional updates on this, please email marine@crownestatescotland.com
Some highlights include
- Working with SSE and partners on their £2.6 billion 588MW Beatrice offshore wind farm in the Moray Firth, thought to be the biggest ever private investment in Scottish infrastructure. It is expected to boost the economy by £680 million with major opporutnities for the local supply chain and hundreds of jobs created. Find out more about the project here.
- Supporting the development of floating wind, a technology that has significant potential in Scotland. In 2016, we launched a programme of work to investigate leasing opportunities to help the industry develop.
- Our tenant Statoil has constructed the world’s largest floating wind array off the Aberdeenshire coast (read about it here).
Our 2017-2020 corporate plan outlines a range of activity to help nurture offshore renewables including:
- Making seabed available at the right time and on the right terms to help attract investment in new energy assets
- Investing in UK-wide study of socio-economic benefits from deep water renewables, and establish UK steering group
- Working with economic development agencies to explore socio-economic benefits from offshore renewables; reviewing how we structure seabed rights to ensure benefits are optimised
Find out more:
