A UK-Japanese-Danish group says it could now be poised to build one of the world’s largest floating wind projects off Scotland after survey work uncovered potential for 3.6GW of development at the site – a gigawatt more than previously thought.
UK utility SSE, which is leading the Ossian project off Scotland’s east coast, said latest geophysical and benthic data has allowed it to add to its previous 2.6GW upper estimate for capacity.
That would make Ossian – which SSE is advancing along with Japanese conglomerate Marubeni and Denmark’s Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners – “among the top five largest floating projects in the world, demonstrating its epic scale”, said senior project manager David Willson.
“We will now work with our stakeholders and regulators to secure the appropriate consent so that the full potential of the Ossian Wind Farm Project can be realised.”
Scotland is already prospective home to some of the world’s most ambitious floating wind plans thanks to the nation’s ScotWind leasing round, in which the consortium was among the biggest winners and that has laid the ground for a potential 28GW of development, the majority of which is foundation-free.
SSE is separately advancing the fixed-foundation Berwick Bank project off Scotland that at up to 4.1GW could be among the world’s largest offshore wind developments of any type.
The utility is also working with Equinor to complete the 3.6GW Dogger Bank off Eastern England that is set to be the world’s largest in operation from mid-decade.
