Shell and Iberdrola bid for large-scale floating wind farms offshore Scotland

Shell and Scottish Power Renewables, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Iberdrola, have joined forces to bid to develop the world’s first large-scale floating offshore wind farms in the north-east of Scotland.

The partnership has submitted multiple proposals for new large-scale floating offshore wind farms as part of Crown Estate Scotland’s ScotWind leasing round which closes for submissions on 16 July.

Floating offshore wind, a technology that is poised to scale up, is suitable for use in deeper water zones where fixed foundations aren’t feasible making it ideal for Scottish waters, Shell said in a statement.

Shell UK Country Chair, David Bunch said: ”If our bid is successful, Shell and SPR are fully committed to working with Scottish communities and businesses to help develop supply chains and expertise which could make Scotland a world leader in floating wind. At Shell we continue to grow our capacity to generate, trade and supply cleaner power to our customers and to play our part in powering the UK to net zero.”

ScotWind Leasing is the first round of seabed leasing for offshore wind in Scottish waters in over a decade and will grant property rights for new large-scale offshore wind project development, including floating wind for the first time.

Crown Estate Scotland is expected to announce the results of this round of ScotWind Leasing in early 2022.

”Scotland is the windiest country in Europe and has the biggest and most experienced offshore sector,” ScottishPower CEO, Keith Anderson, said.

”Bringing ScottishPower and Shell’s collective knowledge, experience and expertise together means we’re perfectly placed to lead the way in developing large-scale offshore floating windfarms and creating a new green industry with massive potential for exporting our skills and experience globally and helping the UK decarbonise its energy generation.”

The ScotWind leasing round attracted bids from most of the major offshore wind developers and major energy companies such as Ørsted, Falck Renewables, and BlueFloat Energy; bp and EnBW; Vattenfall and Fred. Olsen Renewables; SSE, Marubeni, and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners; TotalEnergies; Eni and Red Rock Power; Ocean Winds and Aker Offshore Wind; Macquarie and RIDG; and others.