The Scot-Govt has hired a Southampton-based marine consultancy to draw up new scoping documents to support the development of floating wind (or other possible future deep-water wind technologies) in Scottish waters.
St. Andrew’s House has set a range of challenging targets for renewable energy which include the potential for offshore energy generation (wind, wave and tidal power) in Scottish waters.
Consequently, Marine Scotland has awarded a contract to ABPmer to provide technical documentation in support of its Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Renewable Energy.
This draft plan was first published for consultation in 2013 but was not finalised due to market uncertainty created by a change in the Brit-Govt renewables’ subsidy regime and also because wave and tidal technology has taken longer to mature commercial-readiness.
Paul Whitehouse, Scottish Energy Minister, said: “However, with the development of the world’s first floating wind farm array off the coast of Peterhead and the recent cost reduction for the offshore wind sector demonstrated in the most recent UK renewable subsidies’ auction, we now wish to review the Draft Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy.
“This consultancy will undertake a strategic marine planning process to ensure an enabling spatial strategy is in place for the successful development of this sector to include deep water technologies.”
25 Jan 2018
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