Scotland has over the last few years soared into the international offshore wind big league thanks to its epic-scale ScotWind leasing tender allied with moves to help its oil & gas industry manage the energy transition.
That ambition was on show again this week when the clearing round of ScotWind awarded 2.8GW of seabed for three floating wind projects off Shetland, with Mainstream Renewable Power, Ocean Winds and ESB the winners.
Seabed landlord the Crown Estate pointed to the “common hydrogen focus” of the projects, and the veteran oil & gas executive leading efforts to turn Shetland into a global-scale renewable H2 hub told Recharge the floating wind award marked a big step forward.
Scotland doesn't, however, need to wait until ScotWind projects kick-in towards the end of the decade to see offshore wind in action off its coasts.
Its largest project so far, the gigascale TotalEnergies and SSE-owned Seagreen, began exporting its first power off Angus this week, while construction of the floating development currently on track to be the sector’s largest to date, the 100MW Pentland Floating Offshore Wind Farm off the north of Scotland, took a stride forward with hand-in of a key application to the country’s marine authority.
Canada took centre stage in the global energy transition this week when it signed a landmark green hydrogen export deal with Germany.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz hailed Canada’s “almost boundless potential to become a superpower in sustainable energy” as he agreed the deal with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, part of a globetrotting agenda by Europe’s largest economy to source alternatives to Russian gas.
As the leaders exchanged warm words, German utility Uniper moved to secure 500,000 tonnes of green ammonia made using renewable hydrogen from a major new project on Canada’s Atlantic coast from 2025.
The New Brunswick port of Belledune revealed plans for a renewable hydrogen and ammonia export hub, and US-based World Energy pledged to build a $12bn green fuels plant as Canada buzzed with activity spurred by the alliance.
Innovation is the lifeblood of the energy transition, and as usual there was plenty covered by Recharge this week, ranging from a first view of Vestas’ epic new 15MW offshore wind nacelle to a 100% green ammonia-burning power plant in Singapore.
Rarely have the fruits of R&D tasted as sweet, however, as a novel wind turbine blade material unveiled by researchers at Michigan State University who claim that after use it can be recycled for an array of new applications – including as an ingredient for gummy bears.
