The runners and riders in the ScotWind leasing round
At 17:00 last Friday the door shut on any more applications in the long-awaited ScotWind leasing round. On Thursday Energy Voice published a splendid look at the applicants, that he have kept updated, but as it was behind a pay wall, we’re helping you find out more by tracking down press releases from the companies concerned, providing you with plenty of reading material!
We wish good luck to all of them, there are some great All-Energy friends on the list. More than a dozen areas are available with a maximum bid threshold of £100,000 per square kilometre. Crown Estate Scotland promises an update this week on who has put in applications and the next steps.
• BP and EnBW
BP has set out ambitious plans for a £10 billion spending spree if it secures a lease to install and manage turbines in the North Sea. It estimates this will create thousands of direct and indirect jobs in Scotland, including in Aberdeen, which it will make the centre of its global offshore wind business
• TotalEnergies, Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (GIG) and Renewable Infrastructure Development Group
The Offshore Wind Power Ltd (OWPL) consortium will bring together the partners’ extensive expertise to leverage Scotland’s domestic supply chain and deliver world-class developments that will accelerate the country’s energy transition.
• ScottishPower and Shell
ScottishPower Renewables (SPR) & Shell have signed a joint bidding agreement for the ScotWind Leasing round. The partners have 70 years’ combined experience offshore in Scotland, with over 50 years’ experience offshore in the North Sea. In addition, the partners have over 15 years of combined experience in Floating Offshore Wind. The combined ScottishPower Renewables/Iberdrola and Shell portfolio includes over 2GW of operational offshore wind, over 11GW of offshore wind in development and additionally over 700 MW of floating wind in various stages of development.
• Red Rock Power and Eni
Have formed a new 50/50 partnership as they made a joint bid with the support of transmission company, Transmission Investment. The partnership’s future offshore wind projects in particular would prioritise maximising opportunities for local supply chain growth, the development and deployment of new technologies, and contributing to the decarbonisation of the North Sea and the transfer of skills this will generate.
• Equinor
“Equinor has the experience and capabilities necessary to develop the next full-scale floating offshore wind farm in Scotland following Hywind Scotland. By leveraging our offshore execution capabilities and our leading position in floating offshore wind, we are ready to create more long-term value and drive the industrialisation of floating offshore wind further. We see floating wind as an enabler for the Scottish Government to achieve its offshore wind targets and help reach its ambitious net zero target of 2045,” says Equinor’s senior vice president for business development in Renewables, Jens Økland.
• Ocean Winds and Aker Offshore Wind
…have formed a new partnership for the development of offshore wind in Scotland using floating technology. Currently partnering in California, USA, and Korea, the companies will join forces to bid in the ScotWind leasing round, which is making new seabed leases available for the development of offshore wind in Scottish waters. Ocean Winds is, of course, an EDP Renewables and ENGI JV.
• Vattenfall and Fred. Olsen Renewables
The partnership reflects both companies’ commitment to helping Scotland progress to net zero and support the country’s ambition to become a world leader in offshore wind. The bid will focus on achieving maximum value for the Scottish economy – creating sustainable supply chain in Scotland and bring long term economic benefits. By combining the skills and experience of two of Europe’s leading renewable energy developers, this significant industry collaboration will maximise the potential that the bid can deliver and provides the opportunity to demonstrate how Scotland’s renewable energy ambitions can be truly realised when industry, government and communities work together.
• SSE Renewables, Marubeni Corporation and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP)
Paul Cooley, Director of Capital Projects at SSE Renewables, said: “We’re delighted our ScotWind partnership has now submitted our bids. This is the culmination of a huge amount of hard work from our team and we believe our bids demonstrate the local experience, technology and sustainability leadership, and global expertise that our partnership brings. We know ScotWind will play a pivotal role in delivering Scotland’s offshore wind target of 11GW by 2030, and we believe we’re uniquely placed to utilise our immense knowledge, experience and commitment to play a key role in helping the country lead the charge towards Net Zero.”
• RWE
“The ScotWind process is a critical step for Scottish Government delivering its ambitious target of 11 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. As a long standing partner and investor in the Scottish renewables industry, RWE is pleased to be able to support this through our participation. Our company is a highly experienced, innovative and globally-recognised player in the offshore wind sector, and anticipates that success in ScotWind would unlock significant opportunities to re-energise the local supply chain, while helping create important, high quality, long term employment. We look forward to continuing as a trusted partner to Scotland in the delivery of its offshore ambitions.” Tom Glover, RWE UK Country Chair
• Ørsted, Falck Renewables and BlueFloat Energy
Since pioneering the first ever offshore wind farm in 1991, Ørsted has developed and built more offshore wind projects than any other company in the world. Combining this unparalleled track record with BlueFloat’s unique knowledge and experience in developing, financing and executing floating wind projects and Falck Renewables’ track record in global project development and community engagement in Scotland in particular, the consortium is well placed to deliver world-class floating offshore projects.
• TechnipFMC and Magnora Floating Wind
Jonathan Landes, President Subsea at TechnipFMC, commented: “Magnora and TechnipFMC bring together decades of combined knowledge regarding the development of profitable offshore energy projects. This partnership reflects TechnipFMC’s ambition to capture a significant position in the renewable offshore energy market. We are delighted to support Magnora Offshore Wind by providing our expertise and know-how in bringing innovative offshore energy solutions to the market.”
• BayWa.r.e, Elicio and Ideol
Paul de la Guérivière, CEO of Ideol, stated that “With this consortium, we bring together a unique array of corporate and individual capability; we believe that our respective track-records and experience of project delivery in offshore wind, wind project development in Scotland and locally constructible floating wind expertise render our joint efforts particularly credible and we are confident we can demonstrate clear and significant positive local economic impacts.”
At the end of last week Colin Palmer, Director of Marine for Crown Estate Scotland, said: “We really appreciate and acknowledge all the time, effort and investment that has gone into each and every application to ScotWind Leasing. We know that there is significant interest in Scotland’s ability to host major offshore wind projects, and our engagement with the sector throughout the development of ScotWind has been clear evidence of that.
“We’ll now look forward to the next stage in the journey, and beginning the work of assessing applications and, ultimately, awarding agreements that can help move some of these exciting potential projects closer to reality.”
There was more, much more, in the news than Scotland’s offshore wind leasing round!
The Just Transition and fairness
Professionals across all walks of UK energy have called for government and industry to coalesce around a national skills strategy that underpins the development of low-carbon energy and supply chains, in a just way that does not leave today’s skilled workers and their communities stranded. Their views, hopes and fears are revealed as part of the Energy Institute’s (EI) Energy Barometer 2021: the net zero skills issue.
Fairness should underpin the UK’s transition to net zero. That’s one of the recommendations of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee which urges the government to prioritise the Net Zero Review and Net Zero Strategy to increase engagement with the public, businesses and industry in its report ‘Climate Assembly UK: Where are we now’.
Nissan announces plans for a battery “gigafactory” in Sunderland
On 1 July Nissan announced plans for a battery “gigafactory” in Sunderland; a fortnight later a second was announced (just like those proverbial buses that finally arrive in pairs). This time Coventry was in the spotlight with a BBC report that. “Mission critical” plans have been submitted for an electric car battery “gigafactory” at Coventry Airport that could create up to 6,000 new jobs. Coventry City Council and Coventry Airport Ltd are putting forward the blueprint. Steve Turner, from the Unite Union, said the factory would be a “shot in the arm” for the West Midlands economy. Backers say the plant, which would be 5.7 million square feet in size, and could attract £2 billion of investment.
Marine renewables
The Morlais tidal stream energy project has taken a significant step forward following approval of its outline business case by the North Wales Economic Ambition Board; and was heavily involved in today’s Marine Energy Wales webinar to launch their State of the Sector 2021 report .
Who said floating solar wouldn’t work?
Dutch developer of offshore floating solar technology Oceans of Energy has reached a milestone with its offshore floating solar demonstrator which survived all storms encountered in the North Sea in the past 18 months. And the concept has met with approval in London for a floating solar array in London’s Royal Docks that will provide clean renewable energy directly to the capital’s City Airport has won a share of the £1m Resilience Fund. Organised by the Mayor of London, in partnership with Nesta Challenges, the project from Renewable Connections Developments Limited won the renewable energy category.
Getting serious about heat pumps
Octopus believes heat pumps present a huge opportunity. By the end of 2021 it intends to be recruiting plumbing and heating engineers at a rate of 1,000 each year and funding their training as Octopus-employed heat pump installers. Meanwhile, The Guardian reports that Ministers are resisting calls to reduce VAT on green home improvements, despite pleas from MPs and builders, as they prepare to set out a national strategy for cutting greenhouse gas emissions from home heating.
Just two more floating offshore wind stories….
The global floating offshore wind industry is expected to grow from 74MW to 126MW by the end of 2021 according to a new report from the Floating Wind Joint Industry Project managed by the Carbon Trust. Many countries are considering floating wind, as it opens up new areas with high-wind resources that are not suitable for bottom-fixed installations, such as very deep waters. However, as outlined in the report the industry has certain inherent challenges that need to be addressed in order to maximise the efficiency of commercial-scale floating offshore wind farms.
Did you listen to Henrik Stiesdal on the BBC World Service?
Now there is more news about him and his TetraSpar Demonstrator floating wind turbine. Developed by Stiesdal Offshore Technology, in the early part of last week it had left the Danish port of Grenaa & was being towed to Norway’s Metcentre test site.