Scotland boosts renewable goals with £700m auction for offshore wind projects
ScotWind has raised £700m from an auction of seabed plots for a series of offshore wind projects, boosting the country’s net zero ambitions.
Seventeen projects have been selected from 74 applications, with options fees being passed to Holyrood for public spending.
The area of seabed covers 7,000km squared, and was made available through the Scottish Government’s Sectoral Marine Plan.
The auction was the first Scottish offshore wind leasing round in over a decade and first since the manage of offshore wind rights were devolved to Scotland.
Scottish Power Renewables led the investment process, spending a combined £143.8m on multiple sites. Shell Energy spent the most on any individual site, putting up £86m for a 2,000 MW floating asset.
Other big investors include BP Alternative Energy Investments and SSE Energy led the investment process, both coughing up £85.9m in option fees to build 2,907 and 2,610 MW of energy respectively.
The results follow Glasgow hosting the COP26 climate conference, with the UK pledging to phase down coal usage by the end of the decade and reach net zero emissions by 2050.
Scotland is pushing to reach net zero as a devolved nation by 2045, aiming to to reduce emissions of all major greenhouse gases by 75 per cent by 2030.