BP, EnBW enter joint bid in Scottish offshore wind lease round

LONDON (Reuters) - BP and Germany's EnBW said on Monday they had submitted a joint bid for Scottish offshore wind acreage which could support wind projects with 2.9 gigawatts of capacity.

Crown Estate Scotland's ScotWind wind leasing tender is its first for a decade, and is aimed at supporting the development of around 10 gigawatts of offshore capacity.

BP said its joint bid with EnBW represented a potential 10 billion pound ($14 billion) investment into Scottish offshore wind projects and support infrastructure including ports, harbours and shipyards.

The bid focused on fixed-bottom wind turbines rather than floating turbines which other companies bid for, Dev Sanyal, BP's head of for gas and low carbon, told Reuters.

Floating offshore wind technology is still in early stages of deployment around the world and is significantly more expensive than fixed-bottom technology.

Under the rules of the tender the amount of money companies are expected to pay for the seabed lease is capped, unlike an auction round held earlier this year for seabed leases around the coast of England and Wales which attracted record prices.

BP said it would also invest in net zero industries, including green hydrogen production and accelerate the expansion of Scotland’s electric vehicle charging network.

BP and EnBW formed a 50-50 joint venture this year to develop and operate two offshore wind leases in the Irish Sea.

They face competition in ScotWind from companies such as Equinor, Orsted, Royal Dutch Shell, RWE, TotalEnergies and Macquarie Group's Green Investment Group.

The results of the ScotWind leasing round are expected to be announced early next year.

($1 = 0.7261 pounds)

(Reporting by Nina Chestney, Susanna Twidale and Ron Bousso; Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter)