GBScotWind Leasing
Also known as: ScotWind, ScotWind Leasing, ScotWind Leasing Round, Crown Estate Scotland ScotWind Leasing, ScotWind 2022, ScotWind cycle 1
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ScotWind relaunched in April 2021 under the devolved Crown Estate Scotland regime created after the 2017 transfer of Scottish Crown Estate powers, and it operated within the Scottish Government's October 2020 Sectoral Marine Plan, which defined 15 Plan Options and the 8,600 km² first-cycle seabed cap. The immediate design backdrop was Crown Estate Round 4's February 2021 results, which triggered the Aurora rapid review and the uplift of ScotWind's Applicant Valuation cap from £10,000/km² to £100,000/km². At re-launch, the relevant at-open policy context was the UK 40 GW by 2030 target, Scotland's 8 GW offshore wind ambition, hydrogen targets, and the statutory net-zero-by-2045 framework; ScotWind itself awarded no revenue instrument, so winners were expected to pursue downstream UK CfD rounds for bankable offtake.
14
Sealed · single-round
Option Agreement + Operational Lease
27.6 GW
Projects were expected to be built from the late 2020s onwards.
GBP 4m–86mm
3 years
CPI
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Missing Milestone 1 and/or Milestone 2 automatically shortens the Option Period by 2 years under the milestone rules; if the option is not validly exercised within the Option Period, the project loses the ability to convert to lease.
Exclusive seabed option rights over the bidder-defined Option Agreement Area within a single Sectoral Marine Plan Plan Option, including rights to undertake surveys, site investigations, consenting and development work during the Option Period and to serve an Option Notice for conversion to lease.
Long-term seabed lease granted following valid exercise of the Option Agreement, conferring exclusive rights to construct, operate, maintain, renew and remove the offshore wind farm works on the leased site.
→ If not satisfied by the deadline, the Option Period is reduced by 2 years, subject to restoration if Milestone 2 is then achieved on time.
→ If Milestone 1 was met but Milestone 2 is missed, the Option Period is reduced by 2 years. If Milestone 1 was missed but Milestone 2 is met on time, the original Option Period is restored.
TCW: Projects were expected to be built from the late 2020s onwards.
Late delivery: Missing Milestone 1 and/or Milestone 2 automatically shortens the Option Period by 2 years under the milestone rules; if the option is not validly exercised within the Option Period, the project loses the ability to convert to lease.
One-off Option Fee payable at execution of the Option Agreement. Project-level formula = Applicant Valuation (£/km², chosen from a pre-defined menu with £2,000 floor and £100,000 cap) × Option Agreement Area (km²). Aggregate across the 20 awarded projects: £755.2 million.
Trigger: On or prior to execution/signing of the Option Agreement.
Indexation: none — No indexation stated; determined by Applicant Valuation × Option Agreement Area.
Operational lease rent payable quarterly based on offshore wind farm output at a rate of £1.07/MWh, indexed to CPI. This is structurally an output-linked rent; it is mapped to the closest available v0.7 component type because the current schema lacks a dedicated output-linked-rate enum.
GBP 1.07 GBP per MWh of output
Trigger: Post-COD / from the generation-output rent commencement point under the lease.
Anchor: until event
Indexation: cpi — Rate indexed to CPI under the model lease.
Disposal Premium anti-flipping payment due on disposal during the Disposal Period. Calculated from net disposal proceeds above the original Option Fee after development-cost allowances; applicable percentage declines from 100% at the start of the Option Agreement to 75% by year 3 and to 0% thereafter.
Trigger: Payable on a qualifying disposal during the first 3 years of the Option Period.
Duration: 3 years
Anchor: fixed year count
Indexation: none — No indexation stated.
Single-stage scored application submitted through the ScotWind portal. Bidders submitted one binding application per project, including a bidder-chosen Applicant Valuation selected from a pre-defined discrete menu ranging from £2,000/km² to £100,000/km². The ranking mechanism was lexicographic rather than price-discovery: Coarse Grade, then Applicant Valuation, then Detailed Numerical Score, then a pre-allocated random number.
Reserve: GBP 2,000 GBP/km² — Minimum Applicant Valuation level on the pre-defined menu.
Stop: Closing date followed by evaluation; where remaining eligible capacity/site scope existed, a Clearing cohort could be run for previously-unsuccessful Band 2/3 applicants.
Selection: Top-down selection through the lexicographic ranking waterfall, with each candidate gated by the aggregate seabed cap, per-Plan-Option caps, per-application/per-organisation limits and the 5 km competing-interest rule.
Application area had to be a single continuous area wholly within one Plan Option.
Application area could not exceed 860 km².
Intended installed capacity had to be at least 100 MW per project and per phase where phased.
Intended installed capacity had to deliver at least 1 MW per km² of the Option Agreement Area.
Eventual lease area had to achieve at least 3 MW per km², subject to justified departure supported by site-investigation evidence.
Application area could not overlap, and generally had to remain at least 5 km from, an existing offshore wind farm agreement unless documentary consent from the affected holder was obtained.
No organisation with a Wind Farm Delivery Responsibility role could appear in more than 5 applications.
Each application had to include at least one organisation with a Wind Farm Delivery Responsibility role.
Initial Supply Chain Development Statement commitments, ambition, outlook and supporting narrative had to be submitted as part of the application. The SCDS was mandatory for completeness but explicitly excluded from scoring.
The £20,000 plus VAT application fee had to be paid by the closing date.
Method: qualitative committee
Unit: score (0-450)
Method: qualitative committee
Unit: Band 1 / Band 2 / Band 3
- coarse grade band — Applications were ordered first by Coarse Grade, with Band 3 ranked above Band 2 after Band 1 applications were removed.
- applicant valuation — Among applications with the same Coarse Grade, higher Applicant Valuation (£/km² chosen from the pre-defined menu) ranked higher.
- detailed numerical score — Where Coarse Grade and Applicant Valuation were still tied, the higher Detailed Numerical Score (0-450) ranked higher.
- pre allocated random number — Where the first three inputs were tied, the pre-allocated random number assigned at registration was used, with higher number ranked higher.
No revenue-support instrument. Revenue comes from downstream offtake contracts, merchant markets, or bilateral PPAs.
Legal basis: Seabed lessor acting under the devolved Scottish Crown Estate framework following the Crown Estate Transfer Scheme 2017 and Scottish Crown Estate legislation.
Legal basis: Marine planning authority responsible for the Sectoral Marine Plan spatial framework under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010.
Legal basis: Formal adopting authority for the Sectoral Marine Plan and political sponsor of the ScotWind framework.
Legal basis: Section 36 Electricity Act 1989 consenting authority for offshore wind projects in Scottish waters.
Legal basis: Marine licensing authority for post-award project licensing under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010.
Legal basis: Independent advisor whose March 2021 rapid review materially informed the revised April 2021 ScotWind offer document and cap uplift.
UK Contracts for Difference Allocation Rounds are the downstream revenue-support auctions for ScotWind projects. They are not legally required to hold or convert the seabed rights, but are generally required for commercial viability.
| Winner | Site/Lot | Category | Awarded MW | Price | Total Value | Delivery | Term | Mechanism | Signed | Offer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ocean Winds | Map ref 18 | Floating | 500 MW | GBP 10,000,000m | 10,000,000 | — | — | auction clearing | — | offered not signed |
| Mainstream Renewable Power | Map ref 19 | Floating | 1,800 MW | GBP 36,000,000m | 36,000,000 | — | — | auction clearing | — | offered not signed |
| ESB Asset Development | Map ref 20 | Floating | 500 MW | GBP 10,000,000m | 10,000,000 | — | — | auction clearing | — | offered not signed |
| BP Alternative Energy Investments | 1 | Fixed | 2,907 MW | GBP 85,900,000 | — | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |
| SSE Renewables | 2 | Floating | 2,610 MW | GBP 85,900,000 | — | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |
| Falck Renewables | 3 | Floating | 1,200 MW | GBP 28,000,000 | — | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |
| Shell New Energies | 4 | Floating | 2,000 MW | GBP 86,000,000 | — | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |
| Vattenfall | 5 | Floating | 798 MW | GBP 20,000,000 | — | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |
| DEME | 6 | Fixed | 1,008 MW | GBP 18,700,000 | — | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |
| DEME | 7 | Floating | 1,008 MW | GBP 20,000,000 | — | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |
| Falck Renewables | 8 | Floating | 1,000 MW | GBP 25,600,000 | — | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |
| Ocean Winds | 9 | Fixed | 1,000 MW | GBP 42,900,000 | — | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |
| Falck Renewables | 10 | Floating | 500 MW | GBP 13,400,000 | — | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |
| Scottish Power Renewables | 11 | Floating | 3,000 MW | GBP 68,400,000 | — | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |
| BayWa | 12 | Floating | 960 MW | GBP 33,000,000 | — | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |
| Offshore Wind Power | 13 | Fixed | 2,000 MW | GBP 65,700,000 | — | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |
| Northland Power | 14 | Floating | 1,500 MW | GBP 3,900,000 | — | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |
| Magnora | 15 | Mixed | 495 MW | GBP 10,300,000 | — | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |
| Northland Power | 16 | Fixed | 840 MW | GBP 16,100,000 | — | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |
| Scottish Power Renewables | 17 | Fixed | 2,000 MW | GBP 75,400,000 | — | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |