Crown Estate Scotland has unveiled details of an upcoming new offshore wind leasing process called Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) pertaining to the Scottish part of the North Sea.
According to the public corporation, developers can bid for rights to construct small scale innovative offshore wind projects with capacities under 100MW capacity or larger projects. The purpose of the larger wind projects is to power up oil and gas infrastructure to cut down the carbon emissions resulting from the sites.
Crown Estate Scotland will award the rights based on a largely open auction basis. The auction will be divided into two pots, with one of them for smaller scale innovation projects.
The other pot will be for larger projects that are linked to oil and gas infrastructure.
Crown Estate Scotland said that the bids will be judged based on a combination of price and quality. Currently, the bidding window is expected to open in June 2022.
Under the INTOG leasing round, the corporation will offer areas of seabed that are set out in the initial plan framework of the Scottish Government. Consultation for the framework closed last October.
Applicants of the INTOG leasing process will also have to file a supply chain development statement, which has to outline the nature and location of any supply chain activity associated with their proposed offshore wind project.
Crown Estate Scotland Marine Director Colin Palmer said: “Following our initial announcement last year, we’re now engaging with industry on how the next stage of the INTOG leasing process will work and what it can achieve.
“This leasing is about creating an opportunity for enhanced roll out of offshore wind technology in Scottish waters. Whilst we recognise it will be for industry and government to take the key steps needed on oil and gas transition, we believe this will provide a step towards progressing that transition to net zero.”
The INTOG leasing process is independent of the ScotWind Leasing round meant for commercial scale offshore wind projects in Scottish territorial waters.
Last month, Crown Estate Scotland selected 17 offshore wind projects with a combined capacity of 24.82GW from 74 applicants in the ScotWind round.
