Building wind power in the UK
Wind power is an important way of generating renewable electricity and helping the UK achieve the government target of net zero by 2050. We continue to look at opportunities to invest in offshore wind generation, including innovative wind technologies such as floating wind.
How does wind power work?
Blades turn a low-speed shaft inside the turbine that is connected to a gearbox. Its gearing then rotates a high-speed shaft up to 1,500 revolutions a minute. A generator converts this increase in kinetic energy into electricity. The electricity generated by wind parks travels to a high-voltage substation and on to the grid.
Why do we need more offshore wind?
More renewable energy, such as offshore wind, is critical for a cleaner energy future. How people live, work and play is increasingly going to need to be powered by lower-carbon electricity. Because wind generally blows stronger and steadier in seas and oceans than on land, building offshore wind farms will enable us to catch more of these powerful winds.
In the UK, offshore wind will become an increasingly important part of the energy mix as more is brought on to the grid to meet net zero targets. By 2030, the UK government plans to quadruple the country’s offshore wind capacity so as to generate more power than all UK homes use today.
What are floating wind farms?
Floating offshore wind is suitable for use in deeper water zones, where traditional fixed foundations are not feasible. For example, around 80% of Europe’s offshore wind resource is situated in waters too deep for conventional bottom-fixed wind turbines.
Floating wind turbines are anchored with mooring lines, instead of being fixed to the seabed. Floating platforms can be semi-submersible, spar and tension leg. Many of these are innovations pioneered in offshore oil and gas, in which Shell has decades of experience.
Find out more about offshore wind
Shell UK wind projects
Shell has 50 years of experience delivering complex offshore projects in the North Sea. Floating wind is a natural extension of our capabilities in deeper offshore projects.
Shell and ScottishPower are gearing up to build floating wind projects with a total capacity of 5 gigawatts as part of Crown Estate Scotland’s ScotWind leasing. Through our MarramWind and CampionWind projects off the east and north-east coast of Scotland, we could bring clean energy to power the equivalent of 6 million homes. Developing floating wind can help establish a new green offshore industry – led by Scotland. The CampionWind and MarramWind floating projects will each benefit from a £25 million supply chain stimulus fund from Shell and ScottishPower.
Through Shell Energy, which leads our supply and trading activities, we also have several agreements to buy renewable power generated by Dogger Bank off the north-east coast of England. It is set to become the world's largest offshore wind farm. Shell's latest offtake will be the annual equivalent of powering more than 200,000 homes.
MarramWind
Following our success in the ScotWind auction process by Crown Estate Scotland in early 2022, Shell and ScottishPower have joined forces to develop the MarramWind offshore wind farm.
Located 75 kilometres off the north-east coast of Scotland in water depths averaging 100 metres, the proposed MarramWind project could deliver up to 3 gigawatts of cleaner renewable energy.
The new wind farm project will be developed by MarramWind Limited, a 50:50 joint venture company with Shell and ScottishPower. We bring together decades of experience working offshore and significant presence in Scotland, as well as our strong innovation capabilities for delivering world-class offshore energy projects.
Working collaboratively with local communities, businesses and stakeholders, MarramWind will ensure that maximum value is brought to Scotland and the UK from this development through supply chain growth, skills development and job creation.
CampionWind
Located 100 kilometres from the east coast of Scotland in water depths averaging 77 metres, the proposed CampionWind floating offshore wind farm could deliver up to 2 gigawatts of cleaner renewable energy.
This new project will be developed by CampionWind Limited, a 50/50 joint venture company with Shell and ScottishPower.
Global wind projects
Shell made its first move into the wind business over 20 years ago. In 2000 we were part of a consortium that installed the first offshore wind turbine in UK waters. In 2001 we also initially invested in onshore wind in the USA.
Today, offshore wind is once again a key growth area for Shell. We have more than 4.3 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind capacity in operation and under construction, and 16.7 GW in the funnel of potential projects across North America, Europe, the UK and Asia. We are also investing in the next generation of wind technologies, including floating wind.
Building on over 50 years of experience in offshore oil and gas engineering, we want to lead the way in offshore wind through system-wide collaboration and innovation to deliver cleaner power at scale.
