Flotation Energy, Vårgrønn take first permitting step for another oil & gas-powering floating wind farm

Flotation Energy and Vårgrønn, who recently filed a Marine Licence application for their 500 MW Green Volt floating wind farm in Scotland, have now submitted a Scoping Report for the 1.4 GW Cenos floating offshore wind farm to Marine Scotland.

The developers have submitted leasing applications for both Cenos and Green Volt as part of the Crown Estate Scotland’s Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) leasing round, whose winners are expected to be announced in the second quarter of this year.

The Scoping Report for the Cenos project presents in detail the nature and purpose of the project and its possible effects on the environment, marking the first step of the consenting process for the 1.4 GW floating wind farm, according to Flotation Energy and Vårgrønn (a joint venture between Eni’s Plenitude and HitecVision).

Both offshore wind farms are planned to provide renewable energy to oil and gas platforms, as well as consumers across the UK. The Green Volt wind farm is expected to start producing electricity in 2026 and Cenos two years later.

Located 200 kilometres offshore in the UK Central North Sea, the grid-connected Cenos floating offshore wind farm is planned to help oil and gas platforms in the surrounding areas transition to using renewable energy and to supply 5.5 GWh of electricity to the UK grid and consumers annually.

“Submission of the Cenos scoping report keeps us on track to deliver renewable power to many of the oil and gas platforms in the central North Sea as early as 2028”, said Lord Nicol Stephen, CEO & Co-founder of Flotation Energy.

“Cenos will make a significant contribution to Scotland’s net zero target, removing two million tonnes of carbon from our energy system each year. The scale of the project is huge. It will deliver billions of pounds of new infrastructure investment and help create thousands of local jobs, helping to make the energy transition a reality”.

According to the two companies, their two projects with a combined capacity of almost 2 GW can support The North Sea Transition Deal’s goal to halve offshore emissions by 2030, as well as make a significant contribution to meeting Scotland’s 2045 Net Zero target.

Crown Estate Scotland closed the application period for the INTOG leasing round in November 2022.

The areas of seabed offered through the INTOG round are set out in the Scottish Government’s Initial Plan Framework. 

Developers were able to apply for the rights to build small-scale innovative offshore wind projects of less than 100 MW, as well as larger projects which will provide green electricity to oil and gas infrastructure to reduce their carbon emissions.  

It is expected that up to 500 MW will be awarded to innovation projects and around 4 GW for projects looking to decarbonise oil and gas assets.