TotalEnergies joins group bid for Scottish offshore wind

Rebranded oil major TotalEnergies has joined a consortium of Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (GIG) and the Renewable Infrastructure Development Group (RIDG) to enter Scotland’s ongoing offshore wind leasing round.

The trio is bidding for sites in the ScotWind round, which could see leases awarded capable of supporting up to 10GW of offshore wind capacity.

GIG and RIDG had announced their intention to enter the leasing round last year.

The partners – bidding together in a consortium called Offshore Wind Power Ltd – will face competition in Scotland from several other groups.

Energy major BP and German utility EnBW, Ideol, Aker Solutions, Simply Blue Energy and Subsea 7 have also all announced their intention to bid in the ScotWind round.

The French oil giant changed its name from Total earlier this month. It has a majority stake in the under-construction 1GW-plus Seagreen offshore wind farm, off the east coast of Scotland, and is also developing a gas field in Scottish North Sea.

Meanwhile GIG has helped to develop more than 1.2GW of offshore wind capacity off the UK, according to Windpower Intelligence, the research and data division of Windpower Monthly. RIDG has been working with local and national stakeholders since 2016 to bring forward projects for the ScotWind leasing process.

TotalEnergies and GIG secured lease capable of supporting 1.5GW offshore wind capacity in Crown Estate’s England and Wales offshore wind leasing round