Norwegian developer Magnora’s offshore wind subsidiary has agreed terms with Welsh renewable energy firm Hiraeth Energy to develop two floating offshore wind projects in the Celtic Sea, with a combined capacity of up to 700MW.
The partners are eyeing UK seabed landlord the Crown Estate’s planned leasing process in 2023. This tender could see seabed rights awarded, with projects delivered from 2030 into the early part of the next decade.
This leasing round could see the sites awarded capable of supporting up to 4GW of floating offshore wind capacity, according to the Crown Estate.
It is working towards awarding leases for early-commercial scale projects up to 350MW and for full-commercial scale projects up to 1GW.
If successful, Magnora and Hiraeth’s projects – known as Môr Glas and Môr Gwyrdd – would both have capacities of up to 350MW and would be constructed anywhere between 40-100km offshore.
Magnora said it was “technology agnostic” about the type of floating platform it might use for the two projects and is yet to decide the number of turbines to be used.
Magnora Offshore Wind is a joint venture of Magnora and UK engineering firm TechnipFMC.
Magnora also owns a 25% stake in Vindr Group – which has a 1.5GW onshore wind pipeline in the Nordic region – and is due to increase its stake to 50%.
It is also co-developing an offshore wind farm off Sweden and is set to acquire a special purpose vehicle with a 775MW onshore wind pipeline in South Africa.
Meanwhile, TechnipFMC provides engineering, construction, procurement and installation (EPCI) services to oil and gas industries.
It has also developed its ‘Deep Purple’ system, in which offshore wind output is used to split desalinated water into hydrogen and oxygen and then transfer it to shore in dedicated tanks.
A spokesman for Magnora told Windpower Monthly its offshore subsidiary was mainly focussed on floating wind and complementary technologies and that green hydrogen “will be considered where relevant” in its bid for the new leases.
