Crown Estate Scotland has selected Mainstream Renewable Power and Ocean Winds as preferred bidder for a 1.8 GW offshore wind farm off the Shetland Islands.
The site located east of the Shetland Islands in approximately 100m water depth is suitable for floating offshore wind. The project partners, which hold a 50-50 ownership, are committed to developing floating offshore wind project in Scotland, generating local jobs and opportunities in Scotland and the Shetland Islands.
The site output is expected to power for the equivalent of over 2 million homes and save 3 million tons of carbon emissions each year.
Mainstream has already developed the 450MW Neart na Gaoithe Offshore Wind Farm in Scotland.
Mainstream and Aker Offshore Wind completed a transaction to combine the two companies to create a stronger renewable energy company with more than 27 GW net portfolio. The company is bringing forward multi-gigawatt scale developments of offshore wind assets in markets including Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, Norway, Ireland, the UK and Sweden.
Mainstream, through its combination with Aker Offshore Wind, has partnered with Ocean Winds in the joint venture KF Wind in South Korea and are in consortium to bid in the upcoming leasing round for floating wind at Utsira Nord in Norway.
Mainstream and Ocean Winds are also major shareholders of the leading floating wind technology provider Principle Power.
Ocean Winds was created as a 50-50 joint venture in 2020 by EDP Renewables and ENGIE. The company is one of Scotland’s leading offshore wind developers, with 950 MW currently in operation at Moray East and 882 MW in late development stage at Moray West. In January 2022, Ocean Winds was successful in its ScotWind bid, the Caledonia Offshore Wind Farm, with a plan for up to 2GW.