INTOG powers up Scotland’s energy transition with additional 5.4GW lease award

Floating offshore wind powers up Scotland’s energy transition as INTOG results announced

- SOWEC reaction to Crown Estate Scotland announcement

• Today, 23 March 2023, Crown Estate Scotland announced the results of Scotland’s Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas leasing round, with 5.4GW of new lease capacity
• This round follows on from the 2022 ScotWind announcement of almost 28GW of new offshore wind projects, which included 17GW of floating offshore wind
• With INTOG and ScotWind combined, that means Scottish projects make up almost one-third (31%) of global floating pipeline making Scotland a true leader
• SOWEC has been working alongside successful ScotWind bidders to deliver greater benefits to Scotland through supply chain opportunities, and now hopes to support these INTOG projects to do the same.
• Early Innovation (IN) projects will be particularly important for testing critical innovation as well as providing early floating offshore wind supply chain opportunities, while the successful Targeted Oil and Gas (TOG) projects will support oil and gas decarbonisation and potentially the commercialisation of green hydrogen in Scottish waters.

Issued for immediate use 23/03/2023

Crown Estate Scotland – the body which manages seabed leasing for offshore renewables – has today, 23 March, announced the results of its Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) offshore wind leasing process, with 5.4GW of new capacity being offered leases.

The announcement shows that there have been successful bidders in both the Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas streams. When added to existing Scottish projects such as ScotWind, Scotland now has a pipeline of over 36GW, including 22.5GW of floating offshore wind.

This floating pipeline is over 30% of the global total of known floating projects*, strengthening Scotland’s position as a global leader in floating offshore wind.

The Innovation (IN) projects total 499MW of capacity split across 5 sites. These different projects will help grow Scottish supply chain, test new market approaches, grow green hydrogen and support cost reduction in floating offshore wind.

The Targeted Oil and Gas (TOG) projects total 5GW of capacity split across 5 large wind farms plus three single turbines alongside three different oil platforms. These sites will help to decarbonise Scottish oil and gas operations and potentially help to establish Scotland as a future green hydrogen hub.

SOWEC industry co-chair Brian McFarlane said: “The successful announcement of INTOG demonstrates strong appetite amongst industry for new project leases. It also demonstrates that our industry is innovating and helping Scotland manage its energy transition.

“To build these projects we will need to make use of Scottish deepsea expertise built up over many years. That gives us the opportunity to show the world how to successfully build and operate floating offshore wind sites and commercialise innovation that will come from this early experience.

“Since ScotWind leases were announced fourteen months ago, SOWEC has been working with each ScotWind project to deliver a Collaborative Framework. This team-Scotland approach gives us the best chance of putting in place the port and manufacturing capability these projects are going to need, as well as scaling up the Scottish supply chain benefits from offshore wind. We look forward to working with new INTOG leaseholders as part of cross-industry collaboration.”

ENDS

Editors Notes

• The announcement of the INTOG leasing round can be found here.
• The Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC) is a partnership between the Scottish public sector and the offshore wind industry. Co-chaired by Ivan McKee, Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism & Enterprise, and Brian McFarlane of SSE
• SOWEC’s mission is to coordinate and grow the sector, ensuring the Scottish offshore wind industry is more sustainable, competitive, and commercially-attractive, both domestically and in the global offshore wind market.
• Calculation re. Note 1: ScotWind’s floating capacity is 17,871MW. With INTOG this comes to 23,286MW. RenewableUK EnergyPulse shows that the global total of floating projects with lease awards in place = 74,078 MW), meaning leased capacity from ScotWind and INTOG equals 31% of this global pipeline.
• To follow up with SOWEC about this release and its work please contact SOWEC Communications Lead Maf Smith (smith@lumenee / 07768 831501).