Ørsted acquires majority stake in Scottish floating wind project

The Salamander project is a ‘stepping-stone’ floating wind project off the east coast of Scotland, designed to provide the Scottish supply chain with an early capacity development opportunity before larger ScotWind projects kick off.

The project will deploy innovative floating offshore wind technology to support the cost reduction and learning journey needed for the commercial deployment of floating offshore wind.

Salamander will be progressed through the innovation track of Crown Estate Scotland’s forthcoming Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) leasing round later this year.

Ørsted group deputy chief executive and chief commercial officer Martin Neubert said, “I am pleased that we have agreed with Simply Blue to become a partner on this promising project, which further expands Ørsted’s engagement in floating offshore wind and will provide a lot of learnings that we can apply on ScotWind and other floating wind projects as the technology transitions from demonstration projects to utility scale.”

Simply Blue chief executive Sam Roch-Perks said, “We are delighted that Ørsted is joining with Simply Blue Group and Subsea 7 to develop the Salamander project. Ørsted is a leading player in renewable energy and brings considerable expertise to the project.

“Simply Blue Group wants to contribute to the development of the Scottish offshore wind market and its supply chain. Scotland is one of the best locations on the planet for the development of floating wind projects.”

Ørsted head of UK Duncan Clark said the deal “reaffirms Ørsted’s commitment to floating offshore wind.” Mr Clark said developing projects of the type and scale of Salamander will provide a smooth transition to delivering utility-scale floating wind project and support the cost reduction.

The Salamander project is at an advanced planning stage and is intended to progress within the innovation route of INTOG. Crown Estate Scotland and Marine Scotland expect to launch the INTOG leasing round in June 2022.

Seabed leases will be granted through an auction process, which will be split into two pots – one for smaller scale innovation projects of less than 100 MW and one for larger projects linked to oil and gas infrastructure. It is anticipated that exclusivity agreements for successful projects will be awarded in autumn 2022 with option agreements signed in autumn 2023.