Salamander, a joint venture between Ørsted, Simply Blue Group and Subsea7, announced to have been offered an exclusivity agreement as part of Crown Estate Scotland’s Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) leasing round.
The 100 MW Salamander floating offshore wind project, located 35km off the coast of Peterhead in north-east Scotland, is designed to provide Scotland and its supply chain with an early opportunity to deliver floating offshore wind ahead of the larger-scale ScotWind buildout.
With gigawatts of floating wind buildout expected in Scotland and the UK over the next decade, Salamander will be a valuable stepping-stone to ensure that local supply chains are ready and able to take full advantage of this opportunity.
Salamander will demonstrate a package of innovative technologies at commercial scale, readying them for roll out in utility-scale projects such as the ScotWind leases. These technologies will be critical to ensuring that floating offshore wind energy is deliverable, affordable for consumers and creates value for local industry and business.
The INTOG round was split into two pots – one for smaller scale innovation projects of 100 MW or less and one for larger projects linked to oil and gas infrastructure. Salamander was successful in the innovation route.
Salamander is currently undergoing an environmental impact assessment (EIA). The project has submitted its EIA scoping report to Marine Scotland and Aberdeenshire Council, who have now passed it to statutory and non-statutory consultees for their review and responses to the proposed project and scope of the EIA. The project has a grid connection agreement with National Grid to enable the project to be delivered by 2030 and contribute to the UK’s 5GW floating wind target.
Ørsted develops, constructs, and operates offshore and onshore wind farms, solar farms, energy storage facilities, renewable hydrogen and green fuels facilities, and bioenergy plants. Headquartered in Denmark, Ørsted employs approx. 8,000 people. Ørsted's shares are listed on Nasdaq Copenhagen (Orsted). In 2022, the group's revenue was DKK 132.3 billion (EUR 17.8 billion).
Simply Blue Group, headquartered in Cork, Ireland, is a blue economy developer focused on replacing fossil fuels with clean ocean energy. It develops pioneering blue economy projects – floating offshore wind, e-fuels, wave energy, and low-impact aquaculture.
Subsea7 makes offshore energy transition possible through the continuous evolution of lower-carbon oil and gas and by enabling the growth of renewables and emerging energy.