TotalEnergies to Bid in Scotland’s Offshore Wind Auction

TotalEnergies has teamed up with the consortium between Green Investment Group (GIG) and Renewable Infrastructure Development Group (RIDG) to bid in the ScotWind offshore wind leasing round.

GIG and TotalEnergies have been partners in the offshore wind sector for a while now. In February, they secured seabed lease rights in the UK Round 4 leasing to develop a 1.5 GW offshore wind project and have also been working together on a 2 GW floating wind project in South Korea.

In Scotland, TotalEnergies is already involved in offshore wind development after buying majority stake in the Seagreen 1 offshore wind farm last year.

“Alongside its majority stake in Seagreen1, the largest offshore wind farm in Scotland, and its recent licence awards in the leasing round for offshore wind in England, today’s milestone underlines the strategic importance of the Scottish offshore wind market for the Company”, said Jean-Luc Guiziou, Managing Director of TotalEnergies E&P UK.

“This consortium builds on a unique blend of skills and expertise required to safely deliver a competitive project. As one of the largest operators in the UK energy industry, TotalEnergies will bring its extensive expertise in offshore project delivery, operations and maintenance”.

The Scottish government increased its 2030 offshore wind target from 8 GW to 11 GW last year. The Crown Estate Scotland has already started the ScotWind leasing process, with the deadline for applications from developers set for 16 July.

Several developers have announced their participation in the leasing, including those with plans for building floating wind farms.

The Offshore Wind Power Ltd (OWPL) consortium said the partners plan to jointly bid for sites in Scotland’s forthcoming offshore wind leasing round, but did not reveal any specific details about the projects.

Both the OWLP consortium and TotalEnergies are members of the Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence (FOWCoE) in the UK, which TotalEnergies joined last year.

Since its entry into the offshore wind market at the beginning of 2020, TotalEnergies has joined the development of several projects.

In January last year, the company revealed its joint floating wind project with Simply Blue Energy in Wales, the 96 MW Erebus wind farm which secured seabed rights a few months later.

After buying the stake in the Scottish fixed-bottom offshore wind farm Seagreen 1, TotalEnergies entered the South Korean floating wind market, where it also partnered with Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (GIG).

In October last year, TotalEnergies also bought a 20 per cent stake in the EolMed floating wind pilot project in France.

A couple of days ago, the company said it was increasing its wind energy investments and focusing its efforts on offshore wind power in particular as it pushes towards realising its ambition of becoming one of the world’s top renewable energy companies.

“In 2020, we invested in a number of landmark floating and fixed-bottom wind projects, in both mature and growth regions across Europe and Asia. This has positioned us as a key player in the industry – with cumulative wind power generation capacity of more than 3.5 gigawatts – and contributed to our goal of being one of the world’s top 5 renewable energy companies”, the company stated on 14 June.