Scotland Proposes 5,000 Megawatts of Offshore Wind

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--The Scottish government has outlined its offshore wind development plan with the potential to add 5,000 megawatts (MW) of capacity by 2020.

A report titled "Blue Seas, Green Energy" confirms that offshore renewable developments are viable in at least six sites. Scotland generated 27% of its electricity from renewable sources in 2009, but is aiming to push that to 80% by 2020. The addition of 5 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind would generate enough power for approximately 3 million homes.

Last May, the draft plan identified 10 potential sites with a power generation capacity of up to 6.4 GW, but four have now been removed due a variety of environmental, safety and economic reasons. For additional information, see May 24, 2010, article - Scotland Approves 6.4 Gigawatts of Offshore Wind Projects.

The revised plan's publication comes in the same week that Korea's Doosan Power Systems (Crawley, England) announced plans to build a research and development centre at its existing base at Westway in Renfrew, Scotland. This will be followed with the creation of assembly and manufacturing facilities for the offshore sector. The company is aiming to take advantage of the huge offshore wind potential around Scotland and U.K. and said it aims to create 1,700 jobs.

"Scotland has huge potential to become Europe's leader in clean, green energy generation," said Richard Lochhead, Rural Affairs and Environment Secretary. "Offshore wind offers massive business opportunities and allows us to be at the forefront of emerging technology and development. The offshore wind sector... could lead to a potential generation of over £7 billion to Scotland's economy and support up to 28,000 direct jobs by 2020."

The plan has identified:

• Six areas for development of offshore wind up to 2020, with a potential to deliver almost five Gigawatts of electricity generation capacity
• 25 areas for further exploration beyond 2020, to harness the additional capacity from Scotland's considerable offshore wind resources
• Three previously proposed sites not included in the plan, based on their environmental and economic impacts

Lochhead added: "It is estimated that Scotland has 206 GW of practical offshore wind, wave and tidal resources, almost 40% of the U.K. total. Harnessing just one-third-- 68 GW--would result in net value of £14 billion in electricity sales alone by 2050."

The three sites that were withdrawn from the 10 proposed are in Kintyre, Solway Firth and Wigtown Bay. Three weeks ago, Scottish and Southern Energy plc (OTC:SSEZY) (SSE) (Perth, Scotland) cancelled plans to develop a 378-MW offshore windfarm off the coast at Kintyre in western Scotland. For additional information, see March 4, 2011, article - Scottish and Southern Energy Cancels Plans for Kintyre Offshore Windfarm.

A fourth site, Bell Rock, was withdrawn last year due to radar activity in the area.

IIR's Renewable Energy Database provides extensive coverage on the wind energy, geothermal, hydroelectric, landfill gas-to-energy and utility-scale solar power plants throughout North America, and is now expanding coverage across the world.

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