An auction of seabed plots for major offshore wind projects around the Scottish coast has netted £700m. Seventeen projects covering a total of 7,000km2 have been chosen in the first such leasing round in a decade.
They have a combined potential generating capacity of 25GW – well above the expected auction outcome of 10GW.
Scotland has 1.9GW of operational offshore wind, and another 8.4GW in construction or advanced development.
The ScotWind leasing auction attracted more than 70 bids from major oil companies, utility firms and investment funds from around the world.
Most of the sites are on the east, north east or northern coast, with just one on the western side of Scotland.
Successful bidders include Scottish Power, which won the seabed rights to develop three new offshore wind farms with a total capacity of 7GW.
They include two new floating projects in conjunction with Shell and one fixed project.
Shell New Energies is the lead applicant on the most expensive development, off the coast of Aberdeen, estimated to cost £86m in option fees.
BP Alternative Energy Investments and SSE Renewables will each pay £85.9m in fees for two sites.
The auction process was overseen by Crown Estate Scotland, with funds raised from the process going to the Scottish government.
The winners have now been offered option agreements which reserve the rights to specific areas of seabed.
They include parts of the North Sea to the east of Angus, the outer Moray Firth, west of Orkney, east of Shetland and north-west of both Lewis and Islay.
Source: bbc.com
