US renewables giant Invenergy is set to make its first formal foray into the rapidly growing international offshore wind sector via a tie-up with floating technology specialist BW Offshore that will target development of up-to-5.4GW in Scotland’s maiden ScotWind leasing round.

The move marks a major strategic shift for the Chicago-based clean-energy developer, which has a 29GW-plus land-based wind, solar and energy storage portfolio backed some $43bn in financing, including several gigascale onshore wind farms in the US and some smaller projects in Scotland, but until now no offshore interests.