Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm launches new, short-term corporate power purchase agreements (cPPAs)
With five-year contract length, less than half the typical offshore cPPA duration, businesses can secure low-carbon energy generation in one easy, greener purchase
Glasgow, 2 August 2021: Seagreen Wind Energy, soon to be Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm, has today announced that it is launching its offshore corporate purchase power agreement (cPPA) offerings. The Seagreen terms significantly shorten the typical cPPA length, providing buyers with an alternative option to standard longer-term cPPAs.
Seagreen Offshore Wind Farm will be operational in 2023 and will be able to produce enough low-carbon electricity to power 1.6m homes or the equivalent of almost every home and business in Edinburgh and Glasgow combined.*
The £3bn joint venture project between TotalEnergies and SSE Renewables will have 114 10MW turbines in the deep waters 27km off the coast of Angus in the North Sea, and will be the world’s deepest fixed-bottom offshore wind farm.
Corporate power purchase agreements are an increasingly common way for large corporates to procure their energy supplies and have enabled swifter transition to renewable energy procurement. Typically, contracts are 10 years or more in duration.
Seagreen’s cPPAs offer an alternative to traditional cPPAs for many businesses to access buying renewable energy directly from an offshore wind farm. With a five-year contract length, it offers corporates a balance of contract duration flexibility with surety of supply.
Thanks to Seagreen’s innovative cPPA offering, energy-intensive corporates will be able to share in the displacement of around 2m tonnes of CO2 emissions per annum** and help meet their own environmental goals and sustainability commitments as part of their decarbonisation strategies.
Businesses will be able to purchase energy in blocks of 20MW or 100GWh per annum as part of the Seagreen offshore cPPA. Securing renewable energy directly from Seagreen will also help contracting parties with their environmental, social and governance strategies, connecting their business to what will be one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms.
Tenders for Seagreen’s offshore cPPAs will be released later this year, after the summer.
SSE Renewables is leading the development and construction of the joint venture project, supported by TotalEnergies, and will operate Seagreen on completion.
Damien McSweeney, Finance Director for Seagreen Wind Energy, said: “Seagreen offers an opportunity for large corporates to buy renewable energy that may normally be out of their reach. We are innovating the offshore cPPA model to help energy-intensive businesses to hit net-zero targets with ease and speed.”
Paul Cooley, Director of Capital Projects at SSE Renewables, added: “SSE Renewables is a world-leading developer, operator and owner of offshore wind energy, and is delighted to be able to bring our best-in-class industry knowledge to develop Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm.
Seagreen is a crucial offshore wind energy project that is having a real impact in helping Scotland and the UK ‘Build Back Better’. The short-term offshore cPPA allows corporates the chance to help decarbonise their renewable energy supplies through one contract with a truly iconic wind farm - a major competitive edge in the year of COP26.”
Olivier Terneaud, Vice President Offshore Wind at TotalEnergies, said: “Seagreen is a key strategic project and it underlines both our commitment to investing in Scotland and reaching net zero. By becoming a multi-energy company, we aim to address the dual challenge of the energy transition: to supply more energy but with fewer emissions.”
More information at https://www.seagreenwindenergy.com/power-purchase-agreement
*1.62 million homes powered per annum based on Typical Domestic Consumption Values (Medium Electricity Profile Class 1, 2,900kWh per household; OFGEM, January 2020), typical 50% wind load factor, and projected installed capacity of up to 1.1GW. Two-thirds of homes in Scotland based on Household Estimates Scotland 2019 (National Records of Scotland, June 2020). Quoted 2.23m t/CO2 reductions per annum based on expected annual output against average 446 t/CO2 per GWh (BEIS Digest of UK Energy Statistics, July 2020). 2019 Domestic/Non-Domestic Consumption of Glasgow and Edinburgh = 4,927GWh. (Regional and Local Authority Electricity Consumption as per Gov UK website, December 2020) https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/regional-and-local-authority-electricity-consumption-statistics
**CO2 Savings – over 2m tonnes. 1075 x 0.584 (BEIS load factor) x 8760 (hrs in a yr) / 1000 (convert MWh to GWh) = 5,499.5 x 446 tonnes = 2,452,789 tonnes of carbon emissions saved. Seagreen will displace over 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from electricity generated by fossil fuels every year – similar to removing more than a third of all of Scotland’s annual car emissions and making a significant contribution to Scotland’s net-zero ambition by 2045.