Offshore staff
CORK, Ireland – Subsea 7 has entered a joint venture with Simply Blue Energy to develop the latter’s Salamander floating wind farm concept offshore northeast Scotland.
Under the co-operation, Subsea 7, which has a minority interest, will contribute its experience in delivering offshore energy projects and its knowledge of Scotland’s supply chain.
Sam Roch-Perks, CEO of Simply Blue, said: “The Salamander project has followed a different approach to selecting a foundation technology. We have studied the capabilities of the supply chain in Scotland and, after a thorough analysis, we are focusing on a technology that we believe can, to a significant extent, be delivered locally.
“We are engaging with the supply chain to consolidate this research with great support coming from the DeepWind cluster.”
The 200-MW project would involve use of a floating platform concept with various innovations to allow the technology to be manufactured quickly with a strong local content.
In addition, a low draft requirement for the foundation would allow around 50% more Scottish ports to be considered for marshalling and assembly, Simply Blue claims.
Simply Blue brings floating wind development experience from its four current projects in UK and Irish waters of the Celtic Sea for Total and Shell. In Scotland, commercial projects are likely to be developed under the ScotWind leasing process.
Salamander will require a lease from the Crown Estate Scotland, under the innovation and oil and gas decarbonization leasing activities referenced in the Offshore Wind Sectoral Marine Plan.
As the concept matures, the partners will probably seek a strategic investor to support execution of the project.
With Salamander, Simply Blue claims its current pipeline of projects could deliver up to 60% of the UK government’s target of 1 GW of floating wind by 2030.
03/29/2021
