Equinor is looking to expand its North Sea offshore wind cluster, having placed a bid for floating offshore wind in ScotWind, a seabed leasing round being undertaken by Crown Estate Scotland.

With around half of the sites being floating offshore wind opportunities, Equinor believes Scotland offers a great opportunity to develop large floating offshore wind projects at scale. The Norwegian energy giant already has floating wind turbines deployed and producing electricity at Hywind, located off the northeast coast of Scotland.

“Equinor has the experience and capabilities necessary to develop the next full-scale floating offshore wind farm in Scotland, following Hywind Scotland. By leveraging our offshore execution capabilities and our leading position in floating offshore wind, we are ready to create more long-term value and drive the industrialisation of floating offshore wind further,” said Equinor’s senior vice president for business development in renewables, Jens Økland.

The North Sea has among the world’s best wind resources and is Equinor’s largest and most mature offshore wind cluster. The company’s upstream operations headquarters are based in Aberdeen, employing around 500 people onshore and offshore, including the operations of the Mariner field, east of Shetland.