Scottish wind authority opens offshore leasing round

Crown Estate Scotland, charged with managing seabed leasing for offshore renewable energy projects, announced the launch August 10 of a new leasing round it hopes will help Scotland reach emissions reduction targets set last year in the North Sea Transition Deal.

The Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) round begins with a two-week registration window, followed on August 24 with the opening of the application window, which closes on November 18. Applicants are expected to be advised of the results of the round by the end of March 2023.

The round is targeting offshore wind developers with small-scale (less than 100 MW) projects that can provide green electricity to oil and gas producers as they work to decarbonise their operations.

“INTOG represents an exciting opportunity to help decarbonise oil and gas installations and enable innovative projects which are important in lowering costs for the commercial deployment of offshore wind, reducing risk, and developing Scotland as a destination for innovation and technical expertise,” said Colin Palmer, director of marine for Crowne Estate Scotland.

Michael Matheson, Scotland’s cabinet secretary for net zero, said oil and gas continue to play an important role in Scotland’s economy, so decarbonisation efforts are “vital” to the sector’s sustainability.

“The INTOG leasing round presents significant opportunities to cut emissions across these operations while, crucially, enabling the offshore wind sector to expand, innovate, and drive forward Scotland’s ambition to be a renewables powerhouse,” he said.