Ocean Winds and Aker Offshore Wind form ScotWind alliance
Ocean Winds and Aker Offshore
Wind have formed a new partnership for the development of offshore wind
in Scotland using floating technology.
Currently partnering in California, USA, and Korea, the companies will
join forces to bid in the ScotWind leasing round, which is making new seabed
leases available for the development of offshore wind in Scottish waters.
The two companies will jointly submit the bid by 16 July to Crown Estate
Scotland .
Ocean Winds (OW), a 50-50 offshore wind joint venture owned and created
by EDP Renewables and ENGIE. It has interests in a number of fixed and
floating foundation projects across Europe, North America and Asia.
“Aker Offshore Wind is an ideal complement to Ocean Winds with synergies
that make this partnership stronger than the sum of its parts. Aker brings
five decades of offshore experience in the oil and gas industry together
with expertise and competence to industrialise and scale new floating offshore
technology. Ocean Winds (a 50:50 partnership of ENGIE and EDPR) bring a
history of world-leading renewable electricity development, culminating
in the delivery of Scotland’s biggest offshore windfarm. Together we have
the size, experience and dependability to introduce floating offshore wind
technology to Scotland at commercial scale,” said Dan Finch, Managing
Director of Ocean Winds UK.
Aker Offshore Wind is an offshore wind developer headquartered in Norway,
with a focus on assets in deep waters.
It has supported the design and delivery a number of semi-submersible floating
offshore installations. The company is majority-owned by Aker Horizons,
an investment company dedicated to creating value and reducing emissions
from renewable energy and decarbonisation technologies.
“Aker has a history of transitioning and delivering marine industry capabilities,
technology, and digital innovation from Scotland to manage and de-risk
offshore projects. In Ocean Winds we have a partner which has delivered
Moray East, Scotland´s largest wind farm yet. Adding to that Aker’s offshore
fabrication competencies and strong supply chain partnerships, the consortium
is perfectly positioned to take this important step for Scotland in the
transition to renewable energy,” said Kristian Røkke, Chairman of
Aker Offshore Wind.
Dan Finch added: “Ocean Winds has a long history of project delivery
in the Moray Firth, having brought the 950MW Moray East – Scotland’s
biggest windfarm - from concept to generation. More than a decade ago,
we had the vision of commercial scale generation in deeper water, further
from shore, using bigger turbines than the available technology of the
day. Now we are delivering that vision in the Moray Firth,”.
“The Aker group of companies have many decades of industrial heritage
behind them, as they look to the future of digitalizing the floating wind
industry,” added Røkke. “Together, Ocean Winds and Aker Offshore
Wind will bring determination, innovation, and experience proven to successfully
introduce and deliver new technology, while at the same time, significantly
reducing energy costs.”
