Ørsted, the world leader in offshore wind, has acquired a majority stake in the 100 MW Salamander floating offshore wind development project on the Scottish coast, entering a joint venture (JV) partnership with Simply Blue Group, a leading Irish blue economy developer in floating offshore wind, wave energy, and low-impact aquaculture. Ørsted will own an 80 % stake in the project as Simply Blue Group’s newest JV partner on the project, alongside minority JV partner Subsea 7.
Salamander is intended to be progressed through the innovation track of Crown Estate Scotland’s forthcoming Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) leasing round later this year. Established by Simply Blue Group, the project is designed as a stepping stone for floating wind technology, providing an opportunity for supply chain businesses to gear up for commercial scale floating wind opportunities and help the technology become cost competitive as early as possible. The Salamander project follows on from other such projects Simply Blue Group is developing with major energy operators around Ireland and in Wales.
Martin Neubert, Group Deputy CEO and Chief Commercial Officer at Ørsted, said “I’m pleased that we have agreed with Simply Blue to become a partner on this promising project which further expands Ørsted’s engagement in floating offshore wind and will provide a lot of learnings that we can apply on ScotWind and other floating wind projects as the technology transitions from demo projects to utility scale. Ørsted has been driving the commercialisation of bottom-fixed offshore wind for 30 years, and during the next decade we want to help make floating offshore wind similarly successful through projects such as this one.”
Subsea 7, a global leader in the delivery of offshore projects and services for the evolving energy industry, has already joined the project as a joint venture partner. Subsea 7 brings its proven track record in delivering offshore energy projects together with the company’s expertise and detailed knowledge of the Scottish supply chain.
Green Giraffe acted as advisor to Simply Blue Group and Subsea 7 on the Salamander joint venture with Ørsted.
