BlueFloat, Renantis And Ørsted Move Forward With 1 GW Scottish Floater
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
Stromar Offshore Wind Farm Limited, a joint venture between Ørsted, BlueFloat Energy, and Renantis, has submitted the environmental impact assessment (EIA) scoping and habitats regulations appraisal (HRA) screening reports for the 1 GW floating offshore wind farm in Scotland.
These are the first three paragraphs, which outline the progress that has been made so far.
The reports for the project, which is located approximately 50 kilometres from the Port of Wick, were delivered to the Marine Directorate and Aberdeenshire Council.
The EIA scoping reports outline the plans for the development, addressing both onshore and offshore considerations while the HRA screening reports outline the key protected sites and species of relevance to the Stromar development area. The HRA screening reports also present how impacts will be assessed in more detail at the next stage, the developer said.
The project team will now schedule several community consultation events in Spring 2024 to ensure stakeholders are fully informed and that their views are considered in the site selection, design, and development of the project, according to the developer.
This map shows the various ScotWind leases.
Note.
- The numbers are Scotwind’s lease number in their documents.
- 10 is now Stromar
- This is the Stromar web site.
- One of the partners; Falck Renewables changed its name to Renantis in 2022.
- The next stage is to be awarded a Contract for Difference.
The Internet is suggesting a completion date of 2028.
Stromar, Broadshore And Bellrock
The ScotWind wind farms, that I described in ScotWind Offshore Wind Leasing Delivers Major Boost To Scotland’s Net Zero Aspirations, are starting to be more than numbers in documents.
This map shows the various ScotWind leases.
Note, that the numbers are Scotwind’s lease number in their documents.
- 3 is now Bellrock and 1,200 MW
- 8 is now Broadshore and 900 MW
- 10 is now Stromar and 1,000 MW
Falck Renewables, who have now been renamed Renantis, and BlueFloat Energy are involved in all three projects, with Ørsted also involved in Stromar.
This article on Renewable Energy Magazine is entitled Companies Partner on Floating Offshore Wind In Scotland, where this is said.
Together the three areas could accommodate a total of approximately 3.0 GW of offshore wind capacity, with the projects scheduled to be operational by the end of the decade, subject to securing consent, commercial arrangements and grid connections.
Dates for ScotWind seem to be emerging and 2030 seems to cover several.
Two Celtic Sea Floating Wind Projects Could Be Delivered By 2028
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the first paragraph.
Falck Renewables and BlueFloat Energy have said that they are looking at early delivery of their two floating wind projects in the Celtic Sea, called Llywelyn and Petroc, which have grid connections secured and almost a year’s worth of bird surveys already completed.
These would add two extra 300 MW wind farms to the Celtic Sea.
In Enter The Dragon, I indicated the potential of renewable energy around Wales based on this article on the Engineer is entitled Unlocking The Renewables Potential Of The Celtic Sea. This sentence from the article talks about the possibilities of offshore wind in the Celtic Sea.
The Celtic Sea – which extends south off Wales and Ireland down past Cornwall and Brittany to the edge of the continental shelf – is estimated to have around 50GW of wind generating capacity alone.
The article also talks about Blue Gem Wind and their Erebus and Valorous wind farm projects in the Celtic Sea, that I wrote about in Blue Gem Wind.
There now appears to be four floating wind farms under development in the Celtic Sea between the South-West corner of Wales and the Devon and Cornwall Peninsular.
- Blue Gem Wind – Erebus – 100 MW Demonstration project – 27 miles offshore
- Blue Gem Wind – Valorus – 300 MW Early-Commercial project – 31 miles offshore
- Falck Renewables and BlueFloat Energy – Petroc – 300 MW project – 37 miles offshore
- Falck Renewables and BlueFloat Energy Llywelyn – 300 MW project – 40 miles offshore
But they do create a starter for a GW.
Both consortia seem to have similar objectives.
- To use a stepping-stone approach, gradually building in size.
- To involve the local community in creating a supply chain.
- Create long-term benefits for the region.
If these and other consortia fill the Celtic Sea with 50 GW of floating wind turbines, then we’ll all benefit.
ScotWind Offshore Wind Leasing Delivers Major Boost To Scotland’s Net Zero Aspirations
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release on the Crown Estate Scotland web site.
This is the first two paragraphs.
Crown Estate Scotland has today announced the outcome of its application process for ScotWind Leasing, the first Scottish offshore wind leasing round in over a decade and the first ever since the management of offshore wind rights were devolved to Scotland.
The results coming just months after Glasgow hosted the global COP26 climate conference show the huge opportunity that Scotland has to transform its energy market and move towards a net zero economy.
Some highlights are then listed.
- 17 projects have been selected out of a total of 74 applications.
- A total of just under £700m will be paid by the successful applicants in option fees and passed to the Scottish Government for public spending.
- The area of seabed covered by the 17 projects is just over 7,000km2.
- Initial indications suggest a multi-billion pound supply chain investment in Scotland
- The potential power generated will move Scotland towards net-zero.
This map shows the position of each wind farm.
Note, that the numbers are Scotwind’s lease number in their documents.
Fixed Foundation Wind Farms
These are the six fixed foundation wind farms.
- 1 – BP Alternative Energy Investments – 859 km² – 2.9 GW
- 6 – DEME – 187 km² – 1.0 GW
- 9 – Ocean Winds – 429 km² – 1.0 GW
- 13 – Offshore Wind Power – 657 km² – 2.0 GW
- 16 – Northland Power – 161 km² – 0.8 GW
- 17 – Scottish Power Renewables – 754 km² – 2.0 GW
Adding up these fixed foundation wind farms gives a capacity of 9.7 GW in 3042 km² or about 3.2 MW per km².
Floating Wind Farms
These are the ten floating wind farms.
- 2- SSE Renewables – 859 km² – 2.6 GW
- 3 – Falck Renewables Wind – 280 km² – 1.2 GW
- 4 – Shell – 860 km² – 2.0 GW
- 5 – Vattenfall – 200 km² – 0.8 GW
- 7 – DEME Concessions Wind – 200 km² – 1.0 GW
- 8 – Falck Renewables Wind – 256 km² – 1.0 GW
- 10 – Falck Renewables Wind – 134 km² – 0.5 GW
- 11 – Scottish Power Renewables – 684 km² – 3.0 GW
- 12 – BayWa r.e. UK – 330 km² – 1.0 GW
- 14 – Northland Power – 390 km² – 1.5 GW
Adding up the floating wind farms gives a capacity of 14.6 GW in 4193 km² or about 3.5 MW per km².
Mixed Wind Farms
This is the single wind farm, that has mixed foundations.
15 – Magnora – 103 km² – 0.5 GW
This wind farm appears to be using floating wind turbines.
I have a few general thoughts.
Are Floating Wind Farms Further Out?
There does appear to be a pattern, where the wind farms that are further from the land tend to be floating wind farms and those closer to the land appear to be fixed.
Consider.
- As the water gets deeper, fixed wind turbines will surely get more expensive.
- Floating wind turbines are the newer and more unproven technology, so only those bidders, who have done their research and are happy with it, will have bid.
Falck Renewables Wind Seem To Be Working With BlueFloat Energy
In the three Falck Renewables successes with leases 3, 8 and 10, BlueFloat Energy is a partner in the lease.
According to their web site, BlueFloat Energy were very much involved in WindFloat Atlantic, where this is said.
Top members of our team were key contributors to the development and construction of the WindFloat Atlantic project from concept to Final Investment Decision to commissioning. This 25 megawatt (MW) floating offshore wind project in Portugal marked a turning point in the offshore wind industry as it was the first floating offshore wind project to secure bank financing. With 3 x MVOW’s 8.4 MW turbines, the WindFloat Atlantic project was the world’s first semi-submersible floating wind project and continental Europe’s first floating wind project.
So do Falck Renewables intend to use WindFloat technology in their areas, which are to produce a total of 2.7 GW?
Perhaps a fleet of two hundred floating wind turbines based on WindFloat technology each with a capacity of 14 MW would be ideal.
- Wind turbines would be interchangeable between all three farms.
- There could be a few standby turbines to allow for maintenance.
- It would be possible to borrow a turbine to explore a new site.
All it would need is technology to be able to position and connect a turbine into the wind farm and disconnect and remove a turbine from the wind farm, with simple procedures.
Did BP Avoid the Floating Wind Farms?
BP, who are relatively new to offshore wind, only had one success, for a large fixed wind farm. So did they avoid the floating wind farms?
Do Shell and Scottish Power Have A Bigger Plan?
Shell and Scottish Power were successful with leases 4 and 11, which are reasonably close together.
They also won lease 17, which I wrote about in MacHairWind Wind Farm, where I concluded this.
The MacHairWind wind farm seems a well-positioned wind farm.
- It is close to Glasgow.
- It can be used in tandem with the Cruachan pumped hydro power station.
- It will have access to the Western HVDC Link to send power to the North-West of England.
Is Scotland replacing the 1.2 GW Hunterston B nuclear power station with a 2 GW wind farm, with help from Cruachan and other proposed pumped storage hydro schemes to the North of Glasgow?
So did Shell and Scottish Power get the pick of the bunch and will build two large floating wind farms close together?
Shell and Scottish Power seem to be using French company; Eolfi’s floating wind technology.
Why Do Floating Wind Farms Have A Higher Density?
The floating wind farms have an average energy density of 3.5 MW per sq. km, whereas the fixed wind farms only manage 3.2 MW per sq. km.
It may be only ten percent, but does that help the economics? It certainly, wouldn’t make them worse.
I do wonder though, if the reason for the higher density is simply that a floating turbine can be bigger, than a corresponding fixed turbine.
I also have a few more specific thoughts about individual farms.
Lease 15 – The Odd Bid Out
In any design competition, there is usually at least one design, that is not look like any of the others.
In the successful bids for the ScotWind leases, the bid from Magnora ASA stands out.
- The company has an unusual home page on its offshore wind web site.
- This page on their web site outlines their project.
- It will be technology agnostic, with 15MW turbines and a total capacity of 500MW
- It will use floating offshore wind with a concrete floater
- It is estimated, that it will have a capacity factor of 56 %.
- The water depth will be an astonishing 106-125m
- The construction and operation will use local facilities at Stornoway and Kishorn Ports.
- The floater will have local and Scottish content.
- The project will use UK operated vessels.
- Hydrogen is mentioned.
- Consent is planned for 2026, with construction starting in 2028 and completion in 2030.
This project could serve as a model for wind farms all round the world with a 500 MW power station, hydrogen production and local involvement and construction.
I discuss this project in more detail in ScotWind N3 Offshore Wind Farm.
A Conclusion About Floating Wind
The various successful bids in this round of Scottish wind farm leases can be split by capacity into two groups.
- Floating + Mixed – 15.1 GW – 61 %
- Fixed – 9.7 GW – 39 %
Note that I have included Magnora’s successful mixed bid with the successful floating bids, as it uses floating wind turbines to generate electricity.
The over 60 % of successful bids involving floating wind farms, indicates to me, that the day of floating wind farms has arrived.
The Anonymous Widower 