Crown Estate Scotland has announced the outcome of its review of the option structure for ScotWind Leasing, the leasing round for offshore wind farms in Scottish waters. The review was announced last month (February) in response to the new market dynamics of the offshore wind sector following the result of The Crown Estate’s recent auction for sites in waters around England and Wales.
Crown Estate Scotland’s updated option structure has now been finalised. The key outcomes are:
- ScotWind Leasing will keep the same basic pricing structure for option agreements.
- The previous maximum fee that might be paid was £10,000 per km2 of seabed. This will now be increased to a maximum of £100,000 per km2.
- The threshold of Supply Chain Development Statement commitments that applicants must meet to request a lease has been increased from 10% to 25%.
- Further change of control provisions will apply to resale of options awarded.
- Additional technical information will be published by the end of April to allow registered applicants to progress their interest in ScotWind Leasing.
- The Closing Date for applications will be 16 July 2021.
Option fees are paid by successful applicants to Crown Estate Scotland in exchange for securing the rights to areas of seabed that have been identified as suitable for development in Marine Scotland’s Sectoral Marine Plan. A total of 8,600km2 of Scottish seabed is potentially available for development. Funds will be returned to the Scottish Government for public spending to drive the green recovery and help deliver Government priorities.