Equinor Announces New Floating Wind Plans in Scotland

Equinor has submitted a bid for floating wind development offshore Scotland in the ScotWind auction, the company confirmed on 19 July.

With around half of the sites being floating offshore wind opportunities, the offshore energy company said it believed the Scottish Government was offering a great opportunity to develop large floating offshore wind projects at scale.

The company, which built the world’s first floating wind farm no other than in Scotland, states that this is a good strategic fit with its ambitions to continue to develop its North Sea offshore wind cluster and further deepen its presence across the UK.

“Equinor has the experience and capabilities necessary to develop the next full-scale floating offshore wind farm in Scotland following Hywind Scotland. By leveraging our offshore execution capabilities and our leading position in floating offshore wind, we are ready to create more long-term value and drive the industrialisation of floating offshore wind further”, said Equinor’s senior vice president for business development in Renewables, Jens Økland.

In May, Equinor signed a collaboration agreement with Vårgrønn, a joint venture (JV) between Eni and HitecVision, to jointly apply for offshore wind acreage in Norway at one of the two areas the country opened last year, with plans to use floating wind technology.

The partners said they would jointly prepare and submit an application to the Norwegian authorities to develop floating offshore wind in the Utsira Nord area, which the government deemed most suited for floating wind, saying this was the most interesting technology from a Norwegian perspective. 

In Norway, Equinor is also building a world-first in floating wind, as its Hywind Tampen project, currently under construction, will be the first floating wind farm that will power offshore oil & gas platforms.