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Offshore Wind Market in Scotland

Scotland plans to deliver more than 40GW of offshore wind by 2040

Betarice Demo And Beatice Alpha Platform

Scotland's Offshore Wind Journey

Our first offshore wind project set the scene for what would be Scotland's leading role in the development of deep water offshore wind. The Beatrice demonstration project (image on right) in 2006/2007 consisted of two 5MW turbines on jacket substructures in 45m water depth in the Moray Firth of the East Coast of Scotland.
This was the deepest fixed bottom offshore wind project in the world and that record stood until October 2023 when it was overtaken by another Scottish project, SSE Renewables' Seagreen 1 wind farm with foundations in 58.7m water depth.
At the time the Beatrice demo 5MW machines were also the largest deployed offshore wind turbines in the world and the jacket foundations were the first use of this well known oil and gas foundation technology in offshore wind. The developers involved, SSE Renewables and Talisman Energy, reflected this marriage of wind and oil and gas know-how in what was a rare funding co-operation between the Scottish and UK Governments along side EU to fund this unique demonstration project.
This project opened the door to further offshore wind developments adopting jacket foundation technologies to deliver projects in much deeper water than the existing monopile technologies of the day. It single-handedly extended the reach of offshore wind into deeper waters further from shore.
Our first commercial project, Robin Rigg in April 2010 was the antithesis of Beatrice as it was in possibly the shallowest water available in Scotland in the Solway Firth. This UK Round 3 project covered depths ranging from 4-14m due to a high tidal range in the Solway area. It originally consisted of two projects, East and West, with 180MW in total with this later falling to the present 174MW due to the removal of two turbines due to foundation issues.

Kincardine floating wind project - image Principle Power

Pioneering floating wind

Other leases were provided over the years and prior to the launch of the massive ScotWind leasing round these initial projects had reached an overall capacity of just over 10GW. 
Two of these projects pushed the envelope on water depth even further. The world's first floating wind farm, Equinor's 30MW Hywind Scotland in October 2017 and four years later in October 2021 what is still the largest grid connected floating project in the world, the 48MW Kincardine floating wind project (image on the left from Principle Power). Hywind sits in waters up to 120m and Kincardine, which is closer to shore, in waters up to 80m.
One other floating wind lease from these initial developments is yet to be delivered, the 100MW Pentland floating wind farm which is now moving towards a construction date.
Not content to be a world leader in floating wind these initial projects also includes what will be the UK's largest offshore wind farm. SSE Renewables' massive Berwick Bank project at 4.1GW will, when constructed, also become one of the world's largest offshore wind farms. It will also be a fixed wind water depth record breaker with some parts of the site up to 68m in depth as Scotland continues to innovate in deep water wind.        

Offshore wind construction vessel at the Port of Nigg in the Cromarty Firth

ScotWind Leasing Round

The outcome of the ScotWind offshore wind leasing round from Crown Estate Scotland was announced on the 17 January 2022. It exceeded all capacity expectations with 25GW being spread across 17 projects. The additional Clearing Round, announced in 22 August 2022, added a further three projects totalling 2.8GW. A number of developers have since added additional capacity to their sites and two of the leases have recently been relinquished. Once all these additions and subtractions are factored in it takes the current round capacity total to just under 29GW which includes 18.5GW of floating wind capacity.   

ScotWind  

INTOG Leasing Round

The Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas leasing round is the latest project round, with a total capacity of 5.4GW, aimed at helping the oil and gas industry in the North Sea to decarbonise the production energy on their platforms and infrastructure. All are floating wind projects and taken with the above ScotWind round takes our floating wind pipeline to a world beating 24GW. 

INTOG

Offshore wind projects

Below is a map showing all of the Scottish offshore wind projects with a listing of everything in our pipeline. Links to more detailed lists on the projects are below.

Scotland's Offshore Wind Project Map

 
  • Operational
  • Under Construction
  • Consented
  • In Planning
  • Lease Awarded
  • Lease Relinquished
Project Name Developer Capacity (MW) Current Stage

Name of Project

Developer name
 
Current Stage
 

Milestones

Onshore consenting milestones achieved
  • EIA Scoping Report submitted
  • EIA Scoping Opinion received
  • HRA Screening Report submitted
  • Pre-Application Consultation undertaken
  • Onshore EIA submitted
  • Onshore Consent Application Submitted
  • Assessment decision
  • Onshore consent received
  • Under Construction
  • Operational
Offshore consenting milestones achieved
  • EIA Scoping Report submitted
  • EIA Scoping Opinion received
  • HRA Screening Report submitted
  • Pre-Application Consultation undertaken
  • Offshore EIA submitted
  • Offshore Consent Application Submitted
  • Assessment decision
  • Offshore consent received
  • Under Construction
  • Operational

Key activities undertaken

Date for most recent milestone
 

Grid connection

Connection Agreement
 
Total Capacity
 
Connection Site
 
Connection Date
 

Contracts for Difference (CfD)

CfD Awarded
 
Allocation Round
 
CfD Capacity
 
Target Commissioning Date
 

Project data

Water depth
 
Range of number of turbines
 
Spend to date
 
Project Website

Project documentation

Projects on the above map can be selected from the listing on the right or by zooming in and selecting them on the map itself. The "View more details" link will open up a new window showing a list of possible project related milestones. As these milestones are achieved a blue tick will appear beside the list to denote this.

Scrolling down this 'more details' window will reveal more information on the selected offshore wind project. 

A Sea of Opportunity

Scotland is now home to a huge pipeline of offshore wind projects that are on course to deliver the Scottish Government's target of 40GW by 2040. Our ports and harbours will play a key role in the delivery of these projects as can be seen from the photo montage below.
For more information please see our Ports and Harbours section of our offshore wind portal site using any of the links that can be accessed using the arrows in the images in this montage.

XXL monopiles being delivered to Port of Cromarty Firth for the Moray West project

Moray West monopiles arriving at Port of Cromarty Firth

Image credit: Ocean Winds

Ports and harbours
XXL Monopiles for the Inch Cape project being unloaded at Port of Leith

XXL Monopiles for the Inch Cape project being unloaded at Port of Leith

Image credit: Forth Ports

Ports and harbours
Moray East jackets at Port of Nigg

Moray East jackets at Port of Nigg

Image credit: Port of Nigg

Ports and harbours
Seagreen jackets substructures at Port of Dundee

Seagreen jackets at Port of Dundee

Image credit - Forth Ports

Ports and harbours
Turbine component load out at Port of Nigg while blade shipment vessel arrives

Turbine component load out at Port of Nigg while blade shipment vessel arrives

Ports and harbours

What's happening?

Find out more about current projects and leasing rounds.

Initial projects

Find out about current operational, under construction and in planning projects.

INTOG leasing round

Scottish Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) leasing round map of areas and oil and gas assets in the North Sea