The Cenos Floating Offshore Wind Farm in the UK Central North Sea was conceived by Scotland-based offshore wind farm developer Flotation Energy in 2020.
The proposed project will have an installed renewable capacity of up to 1.4GW, making it one of the largest floating wind farms in the world.
Vårgrønn, a joint venture between Plenitude (Eni) and HitecVision (investor), joined as a partner for the project in 2022.
In March 2023, the two developers submitted a scoping report for Cenos floating offshore windfarm to government agency Marine Scotland.
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In the same month, Flotation Energy and Vårgrønn secured exclusivity by Crown Estate Scotland for areas to develop offshore wind projects including Cenos. The awards were made under Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) leasing round for offshore wind projects.
The Final Investment Decision (FID) for the wind farm is expected to be taken in 2026. The construction works may begin in 2027, with Cenos delivering the first power in 2028.
The project will deliver more than 5.5TWh of renewable electricity per year to the UK grid. It will also enable eight oil and gas platforms in the surrounding regions to switch to using renewable energy.
Additionally, the wind farm will help the Government of UK to reach its target of achieving 50GW offshore wind power capacity by 2030 with 5GW coming from floating offshore wind.
Cenos will also contribute to Scotland’s 2045 net zero target and support the North Sea Transition Deal that seeks to reduce offshore oil and gas emissions by a minimum of 50% by 2030.
Cenos Wind Farm Location
The Cenos Floating Offshore Wind Farm will be located around 200km off the north-east coast of Scotland in the Central North Sea. The water depth in the region is more than 90m.
Overall, the project will cover an area of approximately 333km2.
Cenos Floating Offshore Wind Farm Details
The Cenos Floating Offshore Wind Farm will feature 70 to 100 floating wind turbines. Each of the turbines will have a capacity of 14-20MW.
The wind turbines will be installed on floating substructures, which will be connected by mooring lines to anchors in the seabed.
The wind turbines will generate electricity in the form of Alternating Current (AC) and transfer it to a substation platform. This AC power will be exported to the oil and gas platforms.
The substation platform will also include a converter station to convert AC to Direct Current (DC) to transport electricity onshore and export it to the UK grid.
The Cenos Project is working with NorthConnect Interconnector project to use its DC cable routing. The wind farm will also use the NorthConnect onshore converter substation for Fourfields near Boddam which will have a connection to the Peterhead Substation.
Once operational, the Cenos project is estimated to reduce carbon emissions by more than two million tonnes.
Contractor Involved
In August 2023, UK-based marine surveyor Rovco was contracted by Flotation Energy to conduct geo-environmental survey for the Cenos Floating Offshore Wind Farm Project.
Glomar Supporter, a multi-purpose, custom-reconfigured DP2 survey vessel, will be used by Rovco for the survey.
The survey will involve subsea studies related to the floating wind turbine generators, mooring line anchor locations, inter-array cables, fixed foundation substation areas, and a section of export cables. The data will help in securing environmental impact assessment (EIA) consents and support front-end engineering and design (FEED) study.
The geo-physical survey will require the use of multi-beam echo sounder, magnetometer, sub-bottom profiler, side scan sonar, and multi-channel data, including analysis, processing, interpreting, and reporting of information.
Timeline for Cenos Floating Offshore Wind Farm
November 2022: A leasing application for the project was submitted by Flotation Energy and Vårgrønn under the INTOG Leasing Round.
2023: EIA scoping report, and EIA and Marine Licence submission
2024: The project is expected to receive development consent
2025: Contract for Difference Application and Award.
2026: The partners are expected to make the Final Investment Decision (FID) for the project.
2027-2030: The construction of the wind farm and first power.