Anderson Strathern hails advisory role regarding ScotWind agreements

Our clean energy team has been busy advising Crown Estate Scotland on all of its ScotWind offshore leasing agreements, and we’re looking forward to continuing to work with them on “what is a vitally important step towards achieving net zero”.

ScotWind is a £700 million programme and the first offshore wind leasing round in over a decade, also marking the first award of projects since the management of offshore wind rights were devolved to Scotland.

We were reappointed as legal adviser to Crown Estate Scotland in 2021, and have guided them on a range of issues as part of the ScotWind Leasing process, such as consenting, process structure, procurement and competition matters, drafting of tender documents, and project documentation.

The delivery of the 17 option agreements was completed in fewer than three months, with the project involving specialists from across the firm, in clean energy, marine property, planning, procurement, competition law, litigation, and corporate.

Gavin Thain, partner in our clean energy team, said:

“As a longstanding adviser to Crown Estate Scotland, we were able to deploy informed specialists across the firm to work on what was a complex project with a short timetable. We’re pleased to see ScotWind progressing well, and look forward to continuing to support Crown Estate Scotland in the months and years ahead on what is a vitally important step towards achieving net-zero.”

Colin Maciver, head of offshore wind for Crown Estate Scotland, said:

“Seventeen agreements are now in place to help deliver these offshore wind projects that are central to Scotland’s efforts to tackle the climate emergency, secure the UK’s energy supply, and generate billions of pounds of investment in Scotland. This is an early but critical step towards having turbines in the water ready to generate clean energy.”