New partnership aims to invest £3bn in Scottish projects
ØRSTED recently announced a partnership to develop large-scale floating offshore wind projects alongside onshore wind community engagement pioneer Falck Renewables and floating wind expert Bluefloat Energy.
The partnership committed to more than £3bn of expenditure in Scotland linked directly to its large-scale floating wind farms; with an ambition to increase this figure to over £5bn.
This spend would kick-start Scotland's floating wind industry, creating opportunities for Scottish ports and companies to grow and expand.
These proposals would also provide more than 2,200MW of clean, renewable electricity if the consortium's bids are successful.
The consortium was formed to bring together the industry-leading skills and experience from each of the partners in order to deliver a world-class floating offshore proposition for Scotland.
This combines Ørsted's unparalleled track record in offshore wind with Bluefloat Energy's unique knowledge and experience in developing, financing and executing floating wind projects and Falck Renewables' track record in global project development and community engagement in Scotland.
Martin Neubert, Chief Commercial Officer at Ørsted said: “We recently announced our strategic decision to pursue floating wind opportunities and to drive the commercialization of this technology. Our Scotwind bids reaffirm Ørsted'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.”
Bluefloat Energy's CEO, Carlos Martin, said: “We believe our consortium is very well placed to actually deliver floating wind projects at the scale and within the timeframe expected by the
Scottish government. We are committed to unlocking the opportunity of offshore wind for the local industry and harnessing the value for the communities in Scotland.
“We have leveraged our experience in floating wind to design a supply chain that combines cost-effective and timely delivery with a plan to develop a floating wind cluster across multiple sites in Scotland that could create diverse opportunities throughout key communities”
Richard Dibley, Managing Director of Falck Renewables UK, said: “With our more than 15 years' experience developing onshore wind projects in Scotland which share their economic benefit as widely as possible with local people, Falck Renewables is ideally positioned to help develop a collaborative framework for the offshore wind sector which supports the creation of local jobs, skills and value for local communities.
“This is a huge opportunity to scale up the capacity and capability of the workforce in Scotland to develop a world class competitive floating industry, building on the skills of the Scottish SMES already active in engineering, marine and subsea markets whilst supporting the Scottish Government in its move to energy transition and achieving net zero goals.”