Scottish floating wind projects aimed at decarbonising North Sea oil sign on the dotted line

Seabed landlord Crown Estate Scotland has signed seven floating wind exclusivity agreements for its Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) leasing round, meaning that these projects can move into the development stage in the world’s first offshore wind leasing round of its type.

The INTOG round, the preliminary results of which were announced in March, was split into two halves – one (TOG ) is for larger projects linked to oil and gas infrastructure and one (Innovation) for smaller scale innovation initiatives.

The INTOG scheme aims to create a North Sea renewables grid, a basin-wide green power generation and transmission system that will supply energy to oil and gas assets, replacing the energy currently generated by gas and diesel turbines. Surplus electricity will be delivered to the UK grid.

INTOG leasing aims to attract investment in innovative offshore wind projects in Scottish waters, helping to build up a robust local supply chain for floating wind along the way.

The seven TOG projects join the five Innovation projects which secured exclusivity agreements earlier this year, taking to 12 the total number of INTOG projects from a total of thirteen agreements offered earlier this year, Crown Estate Scotland stated.

Job prospects

Exclusivity agreements for two floating wind developments totalling up to 1.9GW in capacity were signed by Vargronn — a joint venture between Plenitude (Eni) and HitecVision — and Flotation Energy.

The windfarms, called Green Volt and Cenos, were described by the winners as "the most advanced offshore wind projects in Europe for the electrification and decarbonisation of oil and gas platforms.

Olav Hetland, CEO of Vargronn, said: “Green Volt and Cenos are... advancing the offshore wind industry by scaling floating wind technology far beyond the size of current projects.

“By being frontrunner projects, which are already well advanced in terms of their development and the required environmental assessments, Green Volt and Cenos will contribute to establishing a new supply chain for floating offshore wind around the North Sea”.

Nicol Stephen, CEO of Flotation Energy said: "Overall, the Green Volt and Cenos projects are estimated to save around 3 million tonnes of carbon each year. This will play a crucial role in achieving Scotland’s 2045 Net Zero target and delivering The North Sea Transition Deal’s goal to halve offshore emissions by 2030.”

Laurie Heyworth, senior policy analyst on emerging technologies with lobby group RenewableUK, said that "innovative frontrunner projects like Green Volt and Cenos will play a crucial role in boosting the development of a world-class floating wind supply chain in the UK for projects here and abroad".

Combined, Green Volt and Cenos are estimated to create over 8000 jobs during construction as well as several hundred jobs during the operational phase, delivering around £6 billion of gross added value, according to a Vargronn statement on Tuesday.

Three arrays

Dan Jackson, co-founder and director of Cerulean Winds described the exclusivity agreements as a “huge milestone” in the creation of a North Sea renewables grid.

Cerulean said it expects its own projects to deliver over £10bn in gross added value for the UK, with first wind targeted for 2028. The company said “hundreds of floating turbines” will be installed on the three sites, producing “multiple GW” of electricity.

“(Front-end engineering and design) work will begin in earnest with our Tier 1 delivery consortium setting up the packages of supply chain contracts in 2024 that will allow us to build out this development,” Jackson said.

He said the company is “also investing in new Scottish offices and in advanced talks with local ports and yards” for supporting infrastructure, with the promise of 5000 jobs in Scotland across all phases of the project.

Renewable UK estimates that floating wind will provide more than half of the UK’s offshore wind generation by 2050.

INTOG outlined

The INTOG process allowed developers to apply for seabed rights to develop projects that either reduce emissions from the North Sea oil and gas sector – by supplying renewable electricity directly to oil and gas infrastructure (TOG) – or consist of small-scale (IN) innovative projects of 100MW or less.

The proposed projects are for up to 5GW for TOG and up to 449MW of capacity for IN.

Offshore regulator Marine Scotland has not yet concluded the planning process for a sectoral marine plan, but Crown estate Scotland stated that successful applicants with exclusivity agreements can start development work.

INTOG applications were determined on a largely open-auction basis and were judged on a mixture of price and quality.