Ossian floating wind farm submits consent application to Scottish Government
One of the largest floating offshore wind projects in the world has taken a step closer to becoming reality with the submission of the consent application for its offshore array to the Scottish Government.
The proposed Ossian project is being co-developed off the East Coast of Scotland by a partnership comprising leading Scottish renewable energy developer, SSE Renewables, Japanese conglomerate Marubeni Corporation (Marubeni) and Danish fund management company Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP). At up to 3.6GW of installed capacity, Ossian would be among the largest floating offshore wind farms globally. Once operational, it would be capable of generating enough clean, renewable energy to power up to six million homes annually. Extensive consultation and investigation work has taken place over the past three years to assess the project’s 858km2 site, which sits 84km off the Aberdeenshire coast.
Ossian’s Development Lead, Rich Morris said:
“We have submitted a comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment report to the Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate, and we’re committed to continuing engagement with the statutory consultees and wider stakeholder community.
“We are confident this submission will support the timely delivery of the UK’s largest floating offshore wind farm ensuring Ossian is ready to take full advantage of ongoing grid reforms and National Grid ESO’s move to a ‘first ready, first connected' model.
“We have worked hard to reach this significant milestone which is crucial in paving the way for a decarbonised future and supporting the Scottish and UK governments’ net zero targets.”
Best-in-class environmental, technical and legal advisors have been used throughout the process to achieve the most detailed report possible. Ossian has consulted with over 30 organisations including regulatory and industry bodies across nature conservation, fisheries, aviation and shipping and navigation, to ensure the application is reflective of their views. Extensive surveys have also gathered enormous amounts of key data relating to the wind farm array.
This includes Ossian’s collaboration with other ScotWind developers to document the habits of bird populations in the wider North Sea region. The survey involved four aircraft flying simultaneously once a month to collect high-definition images across an 11,550km2 area in the North Sea and took 690 hours to complete.
In November last year, Ossian also became the first ScotWind floating offshore wind farm to complete essential geotechnical surveys. Earlier this year, a year-long metocean data gathering campaign collecting information relating to wave height, currents, tides, and sediment movements was concluded. The data and samples provided are crucial to understanding the engineering properties of the seabed across the vast site. All the surveys are key parts of the assessment, which is required to be submitted to support applications for a Section 36 consent and marine licences relating to offshore renewable energy developments.
The scope of this application covers the generating assets and transmission platforms within the offshore array, with the offshore export cables and onshore infrastructure being progressed under separate consenting processes. Copies of the report will be available to view free of charge at the following locations from the 23 July 2024 as part of a public consultation which runs until 03 September 2024.
An online version will also be available during this consultation period via a dedicated online portal which can be accessed at ossian-eia.com.
The report can also be viewed online at marine.gov.scot/node/23264.