Details of offshore wind leasing round released
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Offshore wind developers are able to begin preparations for future farms as Crown Estate Scotland released details of its forthcoming leasing round.
The ScotWind Leasing, scheduled for October, will see a new pipeline of commercial-scale offshore wind farms being developed around Scotland's coasts.
The Highlands and Islands is expected to be one of the main cluster areas for development, with skills and expertise being built up after the completion of the 84-turbine Beatrice offshore wind farm in the Outer Moray Firth and with the construction of the nearby Moray East farm under way, while Moray West is in place to bid in the upcoming leasing round.
Crown Estate Scotland, which leases the seabed to developers, says the documentation released today, while not finalised, will allow developers to start preparing their proposals.
"The documentation released in today’s pre-launch includes some of the proposed steps and processes which are currently close to completion," it said.
"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, and final documentation will be made available at that point.
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 of ScotWind Leasing is scheduled for October but Crown Estate Scotland added that the final timings are directly linked to the development of Marine Scotland’s Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind.
