TotalEnergies joins Macquarie group to bid in high-profile Scottish offshore wind lease
French oil & gas supermajor links with investment house-owned developer GIG and local player RIDG to enter contest for new seabed rights in UK North Sea
TotalEnergies became the latest international energy major to position itself for a slice of the action in Scotland’s upcoming offshore wind leasing round with plans to join a consortium bidding into one of the most eagerly awaited tenders globally in the sector.
The leasing round, which closes for applications on 16 July, represents one of the biggest opportunities currently available in global offshore wind, offering sites with potential for both fixed-foundation and floating projects, although the trio gave no details of the projects envisaged if they were to be successful with their consortium, called Offshore Wind Power Ltd (OWPL).
The partnership reunites TotalEnergies and Macquarie-owned GIG a few months after their successful bid in the Round 4 leasing process run by the UK Crown Estate for 1.5GW of new seabed rights off England and Wales.
TotalEnergies and GIG are also teaming-up on a 2GW portfolio of planned floating wind projects off South Korea. The third member of the trio, RIDG, was set up in 2017 as a specialist local developer to maximise opportunities in the Scottish offshore wind sector.
Ed Northam, Head of GIG Europe, said: “The addition of TotalEnergies to our bidding consortium brings together a team who have a long track record in delivering major infrastructure projects in challenging environments – a key requirement given the growing scale and complexity of the next generation of fixed-bottom and floating offshore wind farm projects.”
ScotWind offers the potential to sell power into the Scottish grid or to corporate renewable energy buyers, while oil & gas players are also known to be looking at the potential for tapping wind power to help decarbonise their existing fossil operations.
The TotalEnergies/GIG/RIDG team will compete in ScotWind with a line-up that includes a who’s-who of the global energy sector’s developer community, and a number of pioneering start-ups alike.
They include global offshore wind number-one Orsted, oil giant BP, utility SSE and EDPR-Engie joint venture Ocean Winds, as well as emerging players such as Simply Blue Energy and Magnora keen to plant their flags in the floating wind sector.