Crown Estate Scotland today confirmed that seven floating offshore wind projects have signed exclusivity agreements as part of its Innovation and Targeted Oil & Gas (INTOG) leasing round, the outcome of which was announced March 2023.
The seven projects, which are intended to supply power to oil and gas infrastructure, add to five innovation projects which obtained exclusivity agreements earlier in 2023, bringing the number of INTOG projects to 12 out of the 13 agreements offered earlier this year. All INTOG projects use floating wind technology. The IN projects are for up to 449 MW of capacity and the seven TOG projects for up to 5 GW. The exclusivity agreements allow the applicants to continue with development work while Marine Scotland’s planning process for the INTOG Sectoral Marine Plan (INTOG SMP) is completed, Crown Estate Scotland said.
UK developer Cerulean Winds confirmed separately it has signed three exclusivity agreements as part of the INTOG round. Its projects, called Aspen, Beech and Cedar, are for about 1 GW each. The company said the three sites will form the North Sea Renewables Grid that will help to decarbonise oil and gas assets.
Cerulean explained that it is already in the process of putting the necessary contracts in place and targets first power in 2028.
“FEED [front-end engineering design] work will begin in earnest with our Tier 1 delivery consortium setting up the packages of supply chain contracts in 2024 that will allow us to build out this development. To support this, we are also investing in new Scottish offices and in advanced talks with local ports and yards,” said Cerulean Winds co-founder and director Dan Jackson.
“The oil and gas industry is required for UK energy security for years to come but must fulfil its decarbonisation commitments,” Jackson further commented.
Source: renewablesnow
