Lord Nicol Stephen set out the challenges facing the UK’s ability to deliver floating offshore wind capacity, warning the process facing developers was “at times infuriatingly hard and we need to speed up”.
The former Deputy First Minister of Scotland, who now leads offshore wind developer Flotation Energy, highlighted the progress the firm is making on its projects including the 560MW Green Volt offshore wind project planned on a site 50 miles (80 km) off the east coast of Scotland.
Green Volt was a clean energy highlight of 2024 when it became the first floating offshore wind scheme to win support in the UK government’s contracts for difference (CfD) funding round, called allocation round six (AR6).
Flotation, along with its partner Vårgrønn, is also planning Cenos, a 1.4GW floating wind scheme much further out to sea, 118m (190km) from Peterhead. The company made waves when it delivered the Kincardine floating offshore wind farm, whose five turbines are visible from Aberdeen.
Speaking at the opening session of the Scottish Energy Futures conference in Aberdeen, Stephen, who also spent a stint as an energy minister for Scotland, said: “We certainly need wind. We certainly need offshore wind. We certainly need offshore floating wind. We need solar, we need storage. I’d love to see tidal and wave doing much more.”
He said wind has to largely be developed in deeper waters in order to produce the energy required as well as minimise impact.
“We have got to get into deep water and that means floating wind has got to come forward.
“Continuing to develop in shallower waters will not be environmentally acceptable to the sea birds and the many other species we are trying to save from climate change.”
He said it is still “very difficult” to get new floating offshore wind projects into construction and generation. The Kincardine wind project, which he and his business partner Alan MacAskill conceived in 2013 and began generating energy in 2018 remains “the biggest grid connected floating project in the world”.
He added that while the firm’s next project, the Green Volt, was on track and “on the way” its submission to the government’s allocation funding round – in which it was successful – came down to the wire, having been filed on “the final day of the deadline for submitting a contract for difference application”.
“You have no idea how hard, how challenging it was to deliver on that,” he said. “It should not have to be so difficult.”
Stephen cited the “strength” of its investors which includes Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), Japan’s largest electricity utility, as well as Italian energy firm Eni and Norway’s private equity firm HitecVision. The two latter companies are also the main investors behind its partner, Vårgrønn. He said: “We are able to deliver these projects. We are underway – but it is frustrating that before any of them start generating new electrons it will have been more than ten years.”
He added: “We are going too slowly and it is at times infuriatingly hard and we need to speed up.”
This is despite the fact that everyone he speaks to “wants to help”. He listed the agencies involved: “The government, the regulators, the supply chain, the trade associations Scottish Renewables, Renewables UK, Offshore Energies UK, SOWEC, OREC, National Grid, NESO, the ETZ, the NZTC, DESNZ, the Marine Directorate, TCE, clean power 2030, especially the Crown Estate Scotland, our universities, the ORE Catapult, everyone is trying to help to make it happen. But there have been too many missteps and delays.”
He later added GB Energy to the list. He said: “It is very good news that GB Energy is going to be located in Aberdeen – I forgot GB Energy off that list earlier that I gave, how could I have done that?
However, he said “the opportunity remains huge”.
“With drive and determination, with blood, sweat and tears, we can make it happen. We must make it happen. And we are determined to succeed.”
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