At today’s (August 22) Offshore Wind Supply Chain Summit in Aberdeen, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the three projects in Shetland to have been offered seabed agreements for offshore wind projects, following Crown Estate Scotland’s ScotWind clearing process.
Seabed in the NE1 area, east of Shetland, was made available to applicants who met ScotWind’s required standards at earlier stages of the process but did not secure their chosen location.
The Scottish supply chain is expected to benefit from £1.2 billion of investment for each 1GW of capacity produced from three projects located along the 560km2 of seabed. The three projects are expected to have a capacity of 2.8GW.
Responding, Charlotte Stamper, Senior Policy Manager at Scottish Renewables, said:
“As Scotland continues to lead the way in offshore wind today’s announcement is superb news for the sector and we welcome what will be a significant economic boost not just for Shetland but all of Scotland.
“It is an exciting time for the renewable energy industry, with offshore wind set to transform our coastlines as we work towards deploying 11GW by 2030, but to take advantage of these seabed agreements it is important that we consider how we will deliver these projects, with their consenting, planning and financial stages still to come.“