Dounreay floating wind farm could create hundreds of jobs but environment and shipping have to be considered, says Caithness councillor. Plans to build a floating wind farm off the Dounreay coast “could create hundreds of jobs,” according to local Highland councillor Matthew Reiss. But the Thurso and northwest Caithness representative stressed that other factors, such as the environment and shipping routes have to be considered as well. Councillor Reiss said people need to be open-minded about the proposal which would be led by Highland Wind Limited and backed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), a Danish fund management company which has invested in a number of offshore wind projects around the world and had a 35 per cent stake in Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Ltd. The development would have an installed capacity of up to 100 megawatts and be an update on the earlier Dounreay Trì project. It was managed by a subsidiary of Hexicon, a Swedish investment business and planned to build two 10 megawatt turbines six kilometres offshore as a demonstrator project but encountered financial difficulties.

John O’Groat Journal 23rd July 2021 read more »

With no connection to the UK national grid, Shetland looked to neighbouring Scandinavia for a low-carbon, sustainable heating system model to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, writes Anthony Harrington. If Scotland is going to reach its net-zero target by 2045, one of the things that is going to have to change is the way we heat our homes, offices and public buildings. At present some 30 percent or more of the nation’s carbon emissions come from heating these three estates through gas-fired boilers. By way of contrast, the Scandinavian countries have been using a number of district heating systems for many decades. As a result, they have amassed a considerable body of evidence to show that these systems can have a considerably lower carbon footprint than an equivalent number of individual gas-fired heating units. In Shetland, where there is no connection to the UK’s mains gas grid, the community is able to boast a successful, fully functioning district heating system that has been heating some 1300 island homes, public buildings and businesses for some 21 years now. While the Shetland example does not help to solve the problem of how government could best drive a transition away from the traditional gas fired boilers, it does provide a close-to-home example of a moderately large-scale, successfully functioning district heating system which was modelled, in large part, on the Scandinavian experience. When the Shetland Islands’ Council decided back in the mid-1990s, to look into ways of implementing a sustainable heating system, it opted to study Scandinavian examples. In particular, as Derek Leask, executive director of the company that runs the Islands’ heating systems notes, the council was interested in waste-to-heating schemes.

Herald 23rd July 2021 read more »

More than 70 bids have been made by companies for the ScotWind offshore leasing round, showing the country’s “scale of potential” for offshore wind development. The huge seabed giveaway, the first in more than a decade, was launched by Crown Estate Scotland in June 2020 and has attracted 74 applications for rights to build projects across 15 areas. Crown Estate Scotland said it is aiming to make initial offers in January 2022.

Energy Voice 22nd July 2021 read more »

AN AREA east of Shetland which has been pinpointed as a possible site for an offshore wind farm has attracted interest from developers. Crown Estate Scotland confirmed that all 15 areas in the country’s waters which were designated by the Scottish Government as potential offshore wind sites received applications in a recent auction. It was part of the ScotWind leasing process, which asked developers to bid for rights to build projects on parts of Scotland’s seabed. A total of 74 applications were received for the 15 sites. Documents previously showed that the area east of Shetland, which covers 751 square kilometres, could offer a realistic maximum output of 2GW.

Shetland News 22nd July 2021 read more »

Inverness Courier 22nd July 2021 read more »

THE scale of interest in windfarm licences off Scotland has been underlined after more international heavyweights said they had joined the bidding for acreage in the landmark ScotWind round. The Maple Power venture formed by Canadian energy infrastructure business Enbridge and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board described the licensing round as an “industry leading and highly attractive opportunity”.

Herald 21st July 2021 read more »

A Scottish-based consortium of leading offshore wind companies and funders is aiming to create high quality jobs through its participation in Crown Estate Scotland’s ScotWind leasing process. The NextGen consortium, led by Quaybridge Scotland, Parkwind and Maple Power is backed by a number of strategic partners including BlackRock Real Assets and Sumitomo Corporation. From its base in Quaybridge’s Fife office, NextGen has worked closely with stakeholders across Scotland to complete early development work, pilot innovative supply chain interventions and build community level relationships for the last three years.

Inverness Courier 20th July 2021 read more »

SNP ministers and the Scottish Greens were urged today to set a “stretching but achievable” target to massively increase Scotland’s capacity for solar power as part of formal power-sharing talks. Solar Energy Scotland argues that such a move could help boost the economy, saying that every gigawatt of new solar capacity creates 500 full-time equivalent jobs. The organisation has pressed the issue in a letter to both First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the co-leaders of the Scottish Greens as the two parties are now in discussions on a possible formal co-operation agreement whereby Greens could join the Scottish Cabinet.

Morning Star 19th July 2021 read more »

The Korean company CS Wind makes wind towers in Phu My. They’re much bigger than barrels. They’re hollow, tapered columns of thick, painted steel, hundreds of feet tall and hundreds of tonnes in weight, which raise wind turbines high off the ground and give their immense rotor blades space to turn. The Hanna was delivering newly made wind towers, in sections, to Hull, where they would be put on installation vessels and taken out into the North Sea. There, they would be fixed to foundations in the seabed and have turbines mounted on them, becoming part of the world’s biggest offshore wind farm, Hornsea Two, due to become fully operational next year. The towers could have been made much closer to hand. A factory in Campbeltown, on the Kintyre peninsula in Scotland, made towers for Hornsea One. But it shut down in 2019 after its owners said they couldn’t turn a profit. In a small town with diminishing opportunities, a hundred people lost their jobs. It’s a familiar story: small British firm loses out to cheaper products made by low-paid workers overseas. Then again it wasn’t as familiar as it seemed. The British factory and the Vietnamese factory belonged to the same company: CS Wind. Western industry wasn’t brought low by a nimble competitor from the east. CS Wind came west, set up shop and undercut itself. All CS Wind’s factories – the Scottish one and the Vietnamese one, along with others in Taiwan, Malaysia, China and Canada (the Canadian factory was shut down like the Scottish one) – are really one vast factory, in which workers doing the same job are paid wildly different salaries, work radically different hours and get painfully different levels of support from the state. The CS Wind story is one of politicians and electorates in wealthy countries trying to reconcile the irreconcilable goals of cheap green energy, free trade and secure, well-paid green energy jobs for their own workers. There’s something more unsettling involved too: an inspiring, utopian, internationalist movement to save humanity from climate emergency comes across a once inspiring, once utopian, once internationalist movement to save humanity from capitalist exploitation, and walks on by.

London Review of Books 15th July 2021 read more »

BP and EnBW are the latest energy giants to confirm they are bidding for latest round of ScotWind seabed leases. The competition to develop the next wave of Scottish offshore wind farms has continued to intensify, after BP and EnBW today confirmed they had submitted their bid for the ScotWind leasing round. The consortium said it has applied for a lease area off the east coast of Scotland that could support offshore wind projects with 2.9GW generating capacity. But the firms stressed the bid proposal extended far beyond the proposed new offshore wind farm itself, and would incorporate a raft of related infrastructure as part of a £10bn green infrastructure project, including ports, harbours and shipyards, green hydrogen facilities and an of Scotland’s electric vehicle (EV) charging network. The competition for the next round of seabed leases looks set to be fierce, with BP’s announcement following plans late last week from Shell and ScottishPower for a major new floating offshore wind farm, while RWE similarly confirmed it would be participating in the leasing round. Vattenfall, TotalEnergies, and Orsted are also among those expected to bid for seabed leases, as part of a round that could deliver up to 10GW of new capacity.

Business Green 19th July 2021 read more »

Storm of submissions to ScotWind leasing round. Nearly two dozen companies have now confirmed they have submitted bids to the ScotWind offshore wind leasing round. The consortia they have formed include most of Europe’s largest oil companies, with a significant proportion making proposals for floating offshore windfarms, either explicitly or implicitly. Utility Week presents a round-up of the various announcements.

Utility Week 19th July 2021 read more »

Bids flood in for offshore wind farms in Scottish waters. New floating wind farms could be built in Scottish coastal waters as the country moves to increase the amount of green energy produced offshore. Dozens of energy firms from across the world have now submitted proposals to Crown Estate Scotland, which has set out a number of development opportunities as part of its ScotWind leasing round.

Scotsman 19th July 2021 read more »

Energy firm Equinor has bid for a new floating offshore wind farm to be built off the coast of Scotland as it continues to develop its North Sea energy facilities.

Engineering & Technology 19th July 2021 read more »

BP has underlined the value of windfarm acreage off Scotland after submitting a bid for licences which it said could unlock £10 billion investment in areas ranging from hydrogen fuel plants to shipyards. The prediction comes amid strong interest in the ScotWind licensing round from other oil and gas giants including Equinor, which confirmed yesterday that it has made an application. Royal Dutch Shell and ScottishPower submitted joint bids for licences on Friday, the deadline for applications.

Herald 20th July 2021 read more »

BP is promising £10 billion of investment and to make Britain’s oil capital its global hub for offshore wind if it is successful in securing seabed licences around Scotland. The company is teaming up with EnBW, a German utility group, to bid to install turbines with 2.9 gigawatts of capacity in Scottish waters. Aberdeen appears to be the big beneficiary if the application in the Scotwind auction, which is being run by Crown Estate Scotland, is successful.

Times 20th July 2021 read more »

Times 19th July 2021 read more »