London — BP, TotalEnergies and UK renewable companies were among 13 awarded leases to develop offshore wind to supply power mainly to North Sea oil and gas platforms to lower the sector’s emissions, Crown Estate Scotland said on Friday.
The 13 were chosen from 19 bidders for agreements to start offshore wind development work for total initial investment of around 260 million pounds ($317.28 million).
Those set to be the biggest investors are Flotation Energy and Cerulean Winds, who are spending respectively almost 96 million pounds Sterling and 138 million pounds.
BP’s Alternative Energy Investments is set to initially invest 1,670,917 pounds and TotalEnergies 200,000 pounds.
The Crown Estate is an independent commercial business that oversees the seabed around Britain.
Through a leasing process called INTOG (Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas), it aims to attract investment in innovative offshore wind projects in Scottish waters to help decarbonise North Sea operations.
The maximum capacity of all the projects that are awarded contracts to supply power to oil and gas installations is 5 gigawatts (GW), and 500 megawatt (MW) for smaller innovative projects, Crown Estate Scotland said.
Crwn Estate Scotland will offer a seabed lease of 25 to 50 years for these projects, it said.
Britain is a world leader in wind power, which generated a record amount of energy in the country in 2022, supplying more than 25% of its electricity, National Grid says.
As the largest renewable source in Britain, offshore wind can power about 40% of UK homes, the Crown Estate said.
Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; editing by Barbara Lewis – Reuters
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