The deadline for bidding for licenses to develop offshore wind farms in Scotland expired on Friday, July 16, and there is a high demand for the licenses. Thus, more than 74 applications have been received to develop offshore wind in the 15 areas spanning 8,600 square kilometers of seabed, The Crown Estate Scotland announces.
- The many applications from developers show how much potential Scotland has for the future expansion of offshore wind. There is now a lot of work to be done to assess all the applications thoroughly and fairly, so that the strongest projects move on to the next step in helping to drive Scotland's energy sector towards an emissions-free future, says Colin Palmer, Director of Marine at The Crown Estate Scotland.
A total of 12 bidders and consortia have submitted various bids to develop the areas in Scotland. Among others, Ørsted, in partnership with Falck Renewables, has bid for licenses. Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has done the same, together with SSE Renewables and Japan's Marubeni Corporation.
In addition, major oil companies such as Total Energie, Shell, BP and Equinor have also joined the race.
Price range increased tenfold
The high demand leading up to the deadline does not come as a surprise this time. Earlier this year, the deadline was postponed. It did so because the English tender round showed that there was very high demand for offshore wind licenses.
In February, the English Crown Estate was able to secure the English treasury almost 7.5 billion kroner in revenue. The price and demand for the rights were so high in England and Wales that it prompted the Scottish authorities to review their tender structure in 'ScotWind Leasing'. This resulted in a large potential price increase for the licenses.
The Crown Estate Scotland thus chose to increase the maximum bid per square kilometer of seabed tenfold from 87,000 DKK (10,000 GBP) to 870,000 DKK (100,000 GBP). This means that the tender could potentially bring the Scots approximately 7.7 billion DKK in revenue, which will accrue to the treasury if the price limit is maxed out.
The answer to whether the price limit will be fully utilized will come in January 2022, when The Crown Estate Scotland is scheduled to finish assessing the bids. The tender for the Scottish offshore wind was the first in ten years.
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