ScotWind announcement

• United Kingdom

• Energy and infrastructure - Clean energy

18-01-2022

The much anticipated result of Scotland’s first ScotWind Leasing round in 10 years was announced yesterday. The auction process was extremely competitive with a total of 74 applications from both domestic and international bidders to lease areas of the seabed around Scotland for wind farm developments. 17 of these projects were successful, comprising 10 floating, 6 fixed foundation and 1 mixed technologies which will generate £700million in option fees.

The successful projects extend to approximately 7,000km₂ of the seabed and have a potential combined generating capacity of 25GW which marks a significant step towards electrification and reaching the net zero targets set by Scotland.

Yesterday's announcement represents a major investment in the Scottish green economy, commitment to local delivery of greater proportions of the supply chain, and new jobs for Scottish workers.

The success of floating offshore wind projects, comprising more than half of the total capacity awarded, is particularly notable and is a clear indicator of the remarkable progress that the floating offshore sector (and its supply chain) is making. This result together with recent changes to the CfD process, highlights that floating offshore projects will soon no longer be considered demonstration projects or nascent technology and will play a vital role in our future renewables generation.

Steven Dick, Partner, comments: “The awards announced yesterday are without doubt a huge boost for the renewable economy in Scotland. It will be interesting to see how the existing infrastructure will need to develop to accommodate the projects being realised - delivering a combined capacity of 25GW.”