MEMBER NEWS: Tartan trio: Orsted joins BlueFloat and Falck for Scottish floating wind debut bid

July 8, 2021
MEMBER NEWS: Tartan trio: Orsted joins BlueFloat and Falck for Scottish floating wind debut bid

Courtesy of Recharge.

Global offshore wind leader Orsted named BlueFloat Energy and Falck Renewables as its partners for its first bid to deploy floating wind power, as the three joined forces to vie for seabed leases off Scotland.

A consortium of the trio will seek rights to develop sites suitable for “large scale” floating deployment in the ScotWind leasing round being run this year by the Crown Estate Scotland.

The Danish pacesetter in fixed-foundation offshore wind joins BlueFloat, whose CEO Carlos Martin led construction of continental Europe’s maiden floating wind array, the 25MW WindFloat Atlantic off Portgual, and Falck, which has been developing onshore wind farms in Scotland since 2013. BlueFloat and Falck first announced their own partnership in January.

ScotWind will mark the debut attempt by Orsted to enter floating wind, a sector that it stayed clear of for years flagging doubts over high costs of the technology.

Orsted chief commercial officer Martin Neubert said: “Today’s announcement reaffirms Orsted’s commitment to this exciting and rapidly developing new technology. Allying our strong in-house development, EPC and O&M capabilities with partners that have unique hands-on experience in floating wind projects and a strong local presence in Scotland will enable us to deliver an exciting new proposition for Scotland.”

Spain-based BlueFloat, backed by 547 Energy, the renewable energy investment platform of US-based Quantum Energy Partners, bills itself as “a technology-neutral expert with a decade of unique experience and knowledge in developing floating wind projects”.

Martin told Recharge in an interview earlier this year: “We believe that ScotWind will show floating to be fundamentally quite a different type of renewable compared to fixed offshore wind that requires different approaches and that also offers different opportunities,” he said. “And much more so than many in the market realise.”

ScotWind, which closes for entrants later this month, is designed to unlock 10GW of fixed-bottom and floating development off the nation’s coast.

The round has already attracted a stellar array of offshore wind contenders including Vattenfall, Ocean Winds, BP and TotalEnergies.

Orsted has already said it will bid in Norway’s upcoming offshore wind tender, citing the “massive potential” of floating wind power there.

News of the Scottish plan comes a day after Orsted said it will bid to build a 760MW second phase for its Skipjack project off the US

Read the article on the Recharge website here.

Get in touch

AREG is the original energy transition organisation, working on behalf of members to empower the energy supply chain and champion its expertise. Please get in touch if you have any questions or would like to find out more about membership.

Contact Us
“

AREG has played an important role in the growth of Scotland’s renewable energy sector, engaging the supply chain and developing the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre. However, we are only at the very beginning of the transition that AREG was established to both lead and support so there are still opportunities for companies to get into the constantly evolving renewables supply chain. We look forward to continuing our work together as renewables builds on its place as Scotland’s main source of power, and as we seek to deliver real change in the crucial areas of heat and transport.

Scottish Renewables
“

Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce has worked closely with AREG since its formation. The recent progress in the developments of offshore wind projects by Equinor and Vattenfall are as a result of the work of the group over many years. The north-east is known as the oil and gas capital of Europe. At the Chamber, we believe the region must evolve its position to being recognised as the energy capital. Whilst hydrocarbons will continue to be essential in driving our economy for years to come, the generation of renewable resources will play an increasingly important role in providing cost-effective power, innovative development and economic growth.

Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce
“

The enthusiasm and dedication of the early group that would become AREG was fundamental in us choosing to launch All-Energy in Aberdeen. The first tiny show was held in 2001, and AREG’s Chairman at the time, Jeremy Cresswell, played such an active role that I often describe him in terms such as All-Energy’s ‘midwife’. All-Energy is now the UK’s largest renewable and low carbon energy exhibition and conference in terms of number of attendees, space booked, and number of exhibiting companies. As AREG became firmly established, their presence and support for the event grew spectacularly over the years. We thank them most sincerely for their invaluable input.

All-Energy
“

Vattenfall has forged a strong working relationship with AREG through the development of the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre. AREG has worked tirelessly on behalf of the North East and it can take enormous credit for the growth of sustainable energy in the region and the path it has cleared for the region to capture further investment.

Vattenfall
“

Aberdeen City and Shire is emerging as a key location for renewables by successfully transferring its world-class oil and gas expertise into the sector and AREG has done much to advance this through a broad range of initiatives. It has acted as a catalyst in driving further investment in the local economy by engaging with companies, Government, public bodies and existing projects and we have been pleased to support their efforts. Scottish Enterprise will continue to engage with AREG as we increase Scotland’s use of renewable energy.

Scottish Enterprise