Ørsted to take majority in 100-MW Scottish floating wind project

Danish sustainable energy company Ørsted A/S (CPH:ORSTED) has agreed to buy an 80% stake in the 100-MW Salamander floating wind project off the east coast of Scotland, thus joining Simply Blue Group and Subsea 7 in co-developing the scheme.

The Salamander project was established by Cork-based Simply Blue Group and is currently at an advanced planning stage. Its development will now proceed in a joint venture partnership.

The scheme is intended to progress through the innovation track of Crown Estate Scotland’s forthcoming Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) leasing round. It is scheduled to launch in June 2022, granting seabed leases through an auction process that will be split into two pots – one for smaller innovation projects with a capacity below 100 MW and one for larger projects tied to oil and gas infrastructure.

The successful projects should receive exclusivity agreements in the autumn of 2022, with option agreements to be signed a year later.

“Ørsted has been driving the commercialisation of bottom-fixed offshore wind for 30 years, and during the next decade we want to help make floating offshore wind similarly successful through projects such as this one,” said Martin Neubert, Group Deputy CEO and Chief Commercial Officer at Ørsted.

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!