The total power of the two future offshore wind farms will amount to 2.3 gigawatts (GW). Ocean Winds, a joint venture between France’s Engie and Portugal’s EDPR, has won two tenders to build and operate offshore wind farm projects in Scotland, Engie said in a statement released on Monday.
The Scottish government had launched three tenders to develop its offshore wind farm, in order to increase its electricity production there to 27.8 GW.
The largest of the three sites will produce 1.8 GW of electricity and “should power the equivalent of more than 2 million homes and save 3 million tons of carbon emissions each year,” specifies the Engie press release.
Ocean Winds will produce 6.1 GW of electricity
This project was won in a 50-50 partnership by Ocean Winds and Ireland’s Mainstream Renewable Power. The second site, won by Ocean Winds alone, will produce 500 MW.
In Scotland, Ocean Winds will thus produce 6.1 GW of electricity thanks to its other three offshore wind farms, and sees its international portfolio grow to 14.1 GW. The third call for tenders, won by Ireland’s ESB Asset Development, concerns another 500 MW site.
“These projects are located to the east of the Shetland Islands (north-east of Scotland), at depths that will require floating technology,” the French operator said in a press release.
A construction estimated at 1,200 million pounds
To rent the seabed, the potential winners of the three tenders will pay 56 million pounds (almost 66 million euros) to the Scottish government, in addition to 4 million pounds per year and per GW produced.
The bill for the construction of the three projects amounts to 1,200 million pounds (about 1,400 million euros), according to figures provided by the Scottish government. The start-up date of the three future offshore wind farms has not been communicated.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon welcomed the project in a press release, which opens “a new era in the Scottish offshore wind industry”, which will play “a crucial role in the transition of the European capital of oil and gas to one of the zero-carbon capitals”.
Source: BFM TV
