SO News – ScotWind offshore wind auction raises £700m

Crown Estates Scotland (CES) has announced the successful bidders from the 2022 ScotWind auction, which raised £700m. This was the first time in 10 years that plots of Scottish seabed have come up for sale and marks a significant milestone in Scotland's renewable energy developments.

A total of 17 projects were selected from 74 applications, including the joint venture between MarramWind and Shell off the north-east coast of Scotland to develop a 3GW floating wind farm. View the full list of the projects here.

At present offshore wind capacity in Scotland is 2GW, with the largest operational project being the 950MW Moray East project. However, this figure is expected to increase by 24.8GW over the next decade once the 17 projects become fully operational.

A maximum of 8,600 km2 was made available through the Scottish Government’s Sectoral Marine Plan, with the projects expected to cover a total of 7,000km2.

Estate Scotland’s chief executive Simon Hodge said, “Today’s results are a fantastic vote of confidence in Scotland’s ability to transform our energy sector. Just a couple of months after hosting COP26, we’ve now taken a major step towards powering our future economy with renewable electricity.”