Crown Estate Scotland has launched the first round of offshore wind leasing in Scottish waters for a decade, with a draft target of up to 10 GW installed, it said June 10.
The round, called ScotWind Leasing, forms a major part of Scotland's green recovery program and could attract total investment of more than GBP8 billion ($10.2 billion), the estate said.
"ScotWind could deliver more than enough green electricity to power every Scottish household" and save over 6 million mt of CO2 per year, it said.
From June 10 developers can register interest in obtaining an option agreement with Crown Estate Scotland.
These can lead to leases to build offshore wind farms in one of the areas of seabed to be designated as suitable in The Scottish Government's Sectoral Marine Plan (SMP) for Offshore Wind Energy.
A final SMP is to be published by the Scottish Government following consultation on a draft.
As it stands, the draft SMP limits the scale of offshore development to 10 GW to offset potential environmental effects of development.
It states the Crown Estate Scotland would need to offer Option Agreements for over 2,000 sq km to enable development of up to 10 GW.
"Making an area of up to 8,600 km2 of seabed available for Option Agreements via the first cycle of ScotWind Leasing could, therefore, support the development of projects capable of delivering up to 10 GW of total generating capacity," it said.
The round includes measures to promote and enhance the supply chain to help ensure projects can be developed, it said.
Applications must have an intended capacity of at least 100 MW. Where an intended project is to be constructed in multiple phases, all phases must be at least 100 MW in size. Individual project sites must not exceed 860 sq km in size.
Scotland has a target to be net zero in carbon emissions by 2045.
John Robertson, Crown Estate Scotland's Head of Energy & Infrastructure said offshore wind was "one of the cheapest forms of new electricity generation and Scotland is perfectly poised to host major new projects, with a well-established energy skills sector as well as some of the best natural marine resources in Europe."
Scotland's Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse said the leasing round presented an opportunity to help develop the country's strategic economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Our seas are host to some of the best offshore wind resources in the world, supporting the continuing growth and expansion of the sector. We want to harness this huge resource for our energy system, unlocking significant investment in the supply chain to create more green jobs across the sector," he said.
