Scotland, fresh from hosting the COP26 climate summit, on Monday awarded offshore wind project concessions for almost £700 million ($960 million, €840 million).
Crown Estate Scotland announced in a statement that it has granted 17 concessions via an auction process to energy companies including BP, Royal Dutch Shell and SSE, as well as Spain's Iberdrola and France's TotalEnergies.
The final awards received a total of 74 bids, totalled £699.2 million in the first leasing round in a decade, according to the public investment body which hailed it as a "move towards a net zero economy".
Scotland's planned new projects will have a combined power generation capacity of 25 gigawatts (GW) -- which is equal to Europe's current offshore wind power capacity.
The news comes after Glasgow played host to the COP26 United Nations climate summit in November, when major world powers agreed to curb the use of fossil fuels.
"Today's results are a fantastic vote of confidence in Scotland's ability to transform our energy sector," said Crown Estate Scotland boss Simon Hodge in the statement.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 18th, 2022.
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