ScottishPower, part of the Iberdrola Group, has been awarded the seabed rights to develop three new offshore wind farms off the coast of Scotland – including two new floating wind farms being developed in conjunction with Shell – as part of Crown Estate Scotland’s ScotWind leasing.
The projects, with a total capacity of 7GW, will more than treble ScottishPower’s existing offshore wind pipeline from 3.1GW to 10.1GW, significantly boosting the company’s position in the UK’s offshore wind market. Globally Iberdrola now has over 35GW of operational capacity, pipeline, and early-stage developments in offshore wind.
The new Scottish projects, which have the potential to create enough clean energy to power almost 8.5m homes, more than three times the number of homes in Scotland, comprise: MarramWind joint venture (in partnership with Shell) off the north-east coast of Scotland (3GW floating); CampionWind joint venture (in partnership with Shell) off the east coast of Scotland (2GW floating); and MachairWind project off the coast of Islay (ScottishPower only 2GW fixed).
The MarramWind and CampionWind sites, which are in deeper waters than the Islay site, will be among the world’s first large-scale floating offshore wind farms, heralding the start of a new era for floating wind that will kick start a new green global offshore industry – with Scotland and the UK leading the way.