The announcement, September 3rd, of 131 new green infrastructure projects offering 9.6 gigawatts (GW) of new energy is a positive step in securing the next generation of renewable energy infrastructure and will be enough to provide electricity for 11 million homes.
It will bring an extra 3.3GW of offshore wind energy including 400 MW of floating wind for the Green Volt project off the East coast of Scotland which is being developed by Flotation Energy and Vårgrønn.
This project is a significant development in unlocking the potential of the government’s Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas initiative (INTOG) which is designed to provide wind energy to power the oil and gas platforms which are still needed during the energy transition, and at the same time supply the UK grid.
The UK is a world leader in the deployment of static offshore wind and this support for floating wind will put the country at the forefront of nations deploying the new technology.
It will also help to take forward the evolving North Sea energy industry and its supply chain as the UK unlocks more floating wind opportunities.
OEUK members are at the heart of homegrown energy and UK energy security and have powered homes and businesses for decades. Investing in exciting new opportunities in offshore wind is part of that picture.
Britain is aiming to quadruple its offshore wind capacity from 15 GW to 60 by 2030 – enough to power every home in the country.
However, with 3.3GW the UK still remains well behind its annual target of 5.9GW of new offshore wind capacity for the next four years, which was outlined in the specialist independent report commissioned by OEUK from the leading energy consultancy AFRY earlier this year.
Firms have been hit by very much higher costs for building offshore wind farms because of the impact of inflation and increased raw material costs. Giving providers the confidence to invest in this new Allocation Round 6 (AR6) has the potential to anchor and grow energy jobs in the UK.
Thibaut Cheret OEUK’s wind energy manager, said: ‘North Sea energy from oil and gas is a British industrial success story. Given the right investment environment our members will create a similar industrial success story from the energy transition, unlocking more than £200 billion in private capital before 2030, as well as helping to secure our domestic energy security and protect jobs.
‘We can only achieve these ambitious wind targets if we begin to deploy floating wind at scale offshore by 2030, using the early opportunities presented from the INTOG licences. This will require an alignment of industrial and energy strategies to benefit the UK economy.
‘We need to speed up this process of annual strike price auctions, alongside speeding up all investment in homegrown energy and the energy supply chain, if we are going to meet our legally binding net zero targets.'
Nicol Stephen, chief executive of Flotation Energy, added: 'Scotland is already a global pioneer in floating wind. This funding will kickstart the next phase of Europe’s largest floating wind project 80 km off the coast of Northeast Scotland. Green Volt is a huge £2.5 billion project. It will create over 2,800 jobs during construction. Once operational, the floating offshore windfarm will supply clean power to the UK grid, while also supplying renewable electricity to nearby oil and gas platforms.'
See related announcement: Government secures record pipeline of clean cheap energy projects
Source: OEUK
