Crown Estate encourage offshore wind farm development
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A new spate of lucrative offshore wind farms around Scotland is set to be triggered.
Crown Estate Scotland has released details of a new round of leasing so that developers can start preparing project proposals.
Just under half the foreshore around Scotland including 5800 moorings and some ports and harbours are managed by the organisation.
Crown Estate Scotland also leases virtually all seabed out to 12 nautical miles covering some 750 fish farming sites and agreements with cables and pipeline operators as well as the rights to offshore renewable energy and gas and carbon dioxide storage out to 200 nautical miles.
The near-final documentation released in today’s pre-launch includes some of the proposed steps and processes which are currently close to completion.
Developers can now access detailed documents to help them prepare ahead of the final launch of the leasing. These are available upon request from today until August 30. Interested parties are invited to feedback any comments to enable Crown Estate Scotland to fine-tune the process.
Crown Estate Scotland also confirmed that it remains on track to fully launch in October. At this point, final documentation will be made available.
John Robertson, Head of Energy and Infrastructure for Crown Estate Scotland said: “Today marks an important step towards an offshore wind leasing process which will attract investment to Scotland to help reduce climate change emissions and enable wider socio-economic benefits for communities.
“By providing this information now, we will enable developers to start their preparations so that they are in a position to submit suitable applications when the time comes.”
The final launch timings of ScotWind Leasing are directly linked to the development of Marine Scotland’s sectoral marine plan for offshore wind.
Scotland's largest offshore wind farm was officially opened by Prince Charles last week.
The Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm, located about eight miles (13km) off the coast of Wick in the far north, can generate enough energy to power 450,000 homes.
