Crown Estate Scotland announced that Thistle Wind Partners , a consortium of DEME Concessions , Qair Marine SAS , and Aspiravi International NV  had been awarded 2GW worth of option areas in Scotland’s highly competitive ScotWind seabed leasing process.

The consortium’s successful projects are:

• Cluaran Deas Ear: a 1 GW fixed foundation project  in the 187 km2 E3 plan option area;
• Cluaran Ear-Thuath: a 1 GW floating foundation project  in the 201 km2 NE2 plan option area which is envisaged to be developed in two phases.

To ensure a robust project delivery, TWP conducted an extensive assessment of the environmental and technical aspects of the ScotWind project sites. Focused technology optioneering, evaluation of grid capacity development, and a comprehensive risk mitigation plan were undertaken to secure fast tracked and de-risked developments  at a pace  that shall accelerate even more now that the projects have been selected.

Thistle Wind Partners will bring together its partners’ solid and complementary offshore wind development backgrounds characterised by fast-track delivery, stakeholder involvement,  supply chain engagement, innovation in promising technologies, cost control and containment.

Contribute to the acceleration of the energy transition in Scotland
For Thistle Wind Partners local content is a key focus . The consortium intends to  work hand in hand with the Scottish government as well as with local communities and businesses to help develop related supply chain and expertise.

In the coming months, TWP will be actively engaging with government authorities, fellow developers, communities, and businesses, to fully understand local capabilities  and define ways to work together, with a particular focus on breaking down barriers to new entrants to the job market, creating new skilled and energy transition jobs, and ensuring through investment that Scottish ports are ready and in the best position to seize an offshore wind pipeline of opportunities.

“We are delighted to have secured two projects in such a competitive leasing round. Following extensive efforts over the last two years to submit successful ScotWind leasing bids, we will continue with this focused effort to deliver our projects as promptly and cost effectively as possible whilst actively engaging with the local stakeholders and the supply chain. DEME considers these projects as a platform to increase our strong position in Scotland and the wider UK building further on the recent successful implementation of the 950 MW Moray East Project by DEME Offshore”,said Kristof Van Loon, General Manager of DEME Concessions.

“This award is a great success for Thistle Wind Partners. Our teams will be fully dedicated to deliver, with the help of local stakeholders, two state of the art innovative projects, thus participating actively to help Scotland reach its ambition to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. Our involvement in such large offshore projects is a perfect reflection of Qair Group’s strategy to become a local independent energy leader,” said Louis Blanchard, President of Qair.

”We are delighted that we can develop with TWP two offshore wind farms. The Aspiravi Group is already involved with several Belgian offshore wind farms, so the project with TWP is a nice extension of our activities and will also expand our knowledge and experience. We are convinced that the development of these projects will be successful for all parties involved,“said Rik Vandewalle, Managing Director of Aspiravi Holding.