Wind

'World's biggest floating wind farm' scoped by SSE-Marubeni-CIP venture off Scotland

Developer consortium's 3.6GW Ossian deepwater project, won in landmark ScotWind auction last year, moves past key project milestone with eye on start-up in the early-2030s

Ossian project development lead Holly Cartwright
Ossian project development lead Holly CartwrightFoto: Ossian

The SSS-Marubeni-Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) joint venture constructing the floating wind development set to be the world’s largest when brought online in the 2030s, has handed in the scoping report for the 3.6GW Ossian, a key milestone on the project’s timeline.

Sumbission to Marine Scotland of the developer’s plan for the giant North Sea array on acreage awarded to the trio in last year’s landmark ScotWind auction – and recently upscaled from original 2.8GW plans – marks the first step in megaproject’s environmental impact assessment (IEA) process.

“This is a great moment for the project team who worked together on the scoping submission. The Ossian partners are looking forward to receiving feedback and continuing to engage with stakeholders to undertake a robust and proportionate EIA for the array area,” said Holly Cartwright, the project development lead for Ossian, which worked with consultants RPS on the report.

Set within the so-called E1 plan option area, Ossian, sited 80km offshore Aberdeen in 64-89 metres of water, is different class of project than the sector – which currently has total of less than 150MW of operating floating wind capacity globally – has seen so far: some 270 supersize turbines mated to hulls moored over a 858km2 swath of water as part of the development, as well as up to six offshore substation platforms, likely using a mix of fixed-bottom and floating foundations.

Ossian – named an ancient Scottish sea adventurer – will generate enough power for six million Scottish homes and offset up to 7.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year.

Geotechnical investigation contracts have recently been awarded for Ossian, with Fugro brought in for downhole sampling and in situ cone penetration testing on the project site’s seabed, while Ocean Infinity will focus on shallow vibro-cores and deep push seabed cone penetration tests.

Scotland is prospective home to some of the world’s most ambitious floating wind plans thanks to ScotWind, in which the SSE-Marubeni-CIP consortium was among the biggest winners and that has laid the ground for a potential 28GW of development, the majority of which is foundation-free.
Consultancy DNV calculates floating projects today make up over 15% of the total offshore wind deployment in the pipeline for switch-on by mid-century, equal to some 264GW of the 1.75TW slated to be installed.
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Published 20 March 2023, 10:00Updated 20 March 2023, 16:27
SSEMarubeniCopenhagen Infrastructure PartnersScotlandScotWind