Following their success in the ScotWind Leasing round at the start of the year, ScottishPower and Shell have signed option to lease agreements with Crown Estate Scotland – reserving the seabed rights for their MarramWind and CampionWind floating offshore wind farms.
Destined to be among the first commercial-scale floating offshore wind farms anywhere in the world, MarramWind (3GW) and CampionWind (2GW) - off the East and North East coasts of Scotland - will have the potential to power up to six million homes.
Charlie Jordan, ScottishPower’s offshore wind director for the UK and Ireland, said: “The signing of our ScotWind option agreements gives us the green light to push on with our ambitions to deliver jobs and investment for local people, businesses and the supply chain across the country – creating a new global industry from right here in Scotland.”
Hessel de Jong, Shell's general manager Europe for offshore wind, added: “Having signed option agreements with Crown Estate Scotland, a top priority is how the planning phase can be streamlined as much as possible to accelerate the delivery of 5GW of floating offshore wind power.”
The two energy companies previously pledged to invest a total of £75m into the Scottish supply chain.
Their joint venture should provide £50m in stimulus funds for their floating wind projects. It will invest a further £25m to support its fixed project MachairWind.
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