ENGIE’s joint venture Ocean Winds, held 50/50 with EDPR and dedicated to offshore wind, has been awarded the rights to develop new offshore wind generation capacity in the outer Moray Firth in Scotland, as part of the ScotWind tender process run by Crown Estate Scotland (CES).
These rights apply on a 440 km2 site, designated “NE4” by Marine Scotland. This seabed will have a capacity to install around 1 GW. It is to be commissioned by the end of the decade, positioning Ocean Winds as a leader in the Scottish offshore wind market and actively contributing with around 2.9 GW to reach the UK’s 40 GW offshore target by 2030. The site output is expected to meet the needs of over 1 million average UK households.
The site has been named “Caledonia Offshore Wind Farm” by Ocean Winds. It lies in the outer Moray Firth, to the East of Scotland’s largest wind farm, the Moray East Offshore Wind farm (950 MW), developed by Ocean Winds and its partners, expected to enter commercial operation in early 2022, and Moray West (850 MW), currently under development.
Bids to develop this site were invited by the Scottish Government in summer 2021, as part of a competitive process to make new seabed areas available for electricity generation. It was the first time in a decade that new sites in Scottish waters had been made available for offshore wind in this way.
Commenting, Paulo ALMIRANTE, ENGIE Senior Executive Vice President in charge of Renewables, Energy Management and Nuclear Activities, said:
“We are very proud that our JV Ocean Winds, which is strongly committed to the development of the Scottish offshore wind industry since 2009, was successfully awarded today a new seabed area within the highly competitive ScotWind leasing tender. One specificity of this major project is the consideration being given to using part of the output for green hydrogen production. These two technologies, offshore wind and green hydrogen, are priorities for ENGIE. This is a new major success for Ocean Winds, after having secured a total 1.2 GW of Power Purchase Agreements in December through Mayflower Wind, (MA), USA.”
Source: ENGIE
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