One of world’s largest floating wind plans to power oil and gas takes next step
Scottish Cenos project will provide green power to offshore oil and gas platforms and the UK grid
A huge Scottish floating offshore wind farm being developed by Flotation Energy and Vargronn that will use up to 21MW turbines to help decarbonise North Sea oil and gas has submitted its consent application.
With a nominal capacity of up to 1.35GW, Cenos will power offshore oil and gas platforms and the UK grid, its developers said today in an announcement that they have submitted the consent bid to Scotland’s Marine Directorate.
The project comprises up to 95 floating turbines, with 15MW, 18MW and 21MW options being considered and a maximum height of 320 metres. The project is planned 190km from the coastline of northeastern Aberdeenshire.
Delivered as part of Crown Estate Scotland’s Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) leasing round, once complete, the Cenos developers claimed it will be one of the world’s largest floating offshore windfarms.
“This is an important milestone in the development of the project and demonstration of the hard work and dedication from our collaborative Vargronn and Flotation Energy teams,” said Cenos project director Christopher Pearson.
He said that Edinburgh-based Flotation Energy and Norway’s Vargronn, a joint venture between Eni's Plenitude unit and HitecVision, are “taking the learnings and synergies gained” from their sister Green Volt floating wind project off Scotland for Cenos, “enabling us to capitalise on our first-mover advantage to deliver this innovative and complex development at scale.”
“Cenos is set to be one of the world’s largest floating offshore wind farms, strengthening Scotland and the UK’s position as a global leader in floating wind,” said Pearson. “It is expected to play a critical role in speeding up the energy transition, providing renewable power to the UK grid and offshore oil and gas platforms in the North Sea.”
Sister project Green Volt has found itself in the spotlight recently after it was reported that it had chosen turbines produced by China’s Mingyang for the 560MW project, which won a UK government contract for difference last year.