Off the coast of Scotland, the world’s largest floating offshore wind farm will be constructed to power North Sea platforms that pump fossil fuels into the UK.
Green Volt will consist of 35 wind turbines that will generate 560MW renewable energy. The investment is expected to be around £3bn. This power will replace current diesel and natural gas energy used for drilling operations.
It will also have six times as much energy as the second largest floating offshore plant off the coasts of Norway. The wind farm will generate six times more energy. Some of this will be sent back into the grid for homes in Scotland.
The project near Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, is being undertaken as Britain’s North Sea Oil and Gas Rigs move to run on renewable power. Green Volt, a joint venture of Scotland’s Flotation Energy with Norway’s Vargronn should reduce carbon dioxide emissions by around 1m tonnes each year.
The foundations for fixed offshore wind development in shallow water are not the same as those of floating wind turbines.
Nicol Stephen said that the chief executive officer of Flotation Energy was confident about the development. “This multi-billion-pound project can now be moved forward, creating hundreds local jobs, and proving the UK and Scottish Supply Chain is ready to deliver large scale floating projects.”
Olav Hextland, chief executive officer of Vargronn said that floating wind will be a major global market for decades to come. Scotland, as a leader in the field, is now well positioned to become home to world-leading technology and create a new industry.
The UK’s oilfields are currently powered by diesel or gas generators. Around 3pc (or 17m tonnes) of Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to the oil and gas industry.
The North Sea Transition Authority has ordered the industry to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels. Platform operators must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030. New platforms will also have to be designed with green electricity.
Some in the industry are concerned about the cost of decommissioning or converting older rigs.
SNP was criticised despite approving Green Volt, for its slow progress on approving other major wind power projects.
The Scottish government did not approve the major project at Berwick Bank that would have created over 4,000 jobs in time for the company to apply for the government contract for difference auction which helps to set the market price of renewable energy. The next auction will be in 2025.
The announcement came just days after the SNP , which depends on the Scottish Green Party to support it in a power sharing deal, , ripped up Scotland’s climate change targets for 2030, admitting that plans to reduce emissions by 75pc before the end of this decade were “out-of-reach”.
Mairi MacAllan, Scotland’s energy minister, said that the commitment to achieve net zero by 2045 was still in place. The nearer-term target was however “challenging, given the UK’s backtracking and cuts”.
Humza Yousaf said that Scotland is the ideal place to develop offshore wind, its supply chain, and to maximize the enormous economic opportunities offshore wind can provide.