Developer pulls out of east of Shetland wind farm

Ocean Wind has handed back the lease for the Arven South wind farm but will continue to develop the bigger Arven North location. 

Arven South lease handed back to Crown Estate Scotland following fishing industry opposition

Wind farm developer Ocean Winds is handing back the lease option for the 500MW Arven South floating offshore wind farm near Shetland to Crown Estate Scotland, with strong opposition from the fishing industry cited as one reason for the pullout.  

Arven South is part of the larger Arven project off Shetland, and the 1.8GW Arven North project will continue.

Ocean Winds said it was handing back the ScotWind lease because of a lack of a viable grid connection, transmission charging issues and local stakeholder concerns, particularly from the fishing industry.

The development follows a trend of developers re-evaluating projects following the 2022 ScotWind leasing round and the departure of partners such as Mainstream Renewable Power in 2025.

Arven South’s board of directors said the decision to hand back the lease on the 500MW development had been driven by doubts about whether it would be able to complete the project within the lease agreement time.

They added: “The decision has also been influenced by discussions with various local stakeholders, specifically the fisheries-related interests at the proposed site.”

Arven project director Mark Baxter said Ocean Wind was planning to develop the remaining Arven site incrementally, as floating offshore wind technology matures. “We remain expectant that Arven can become an important part of the Shetland community, supporting the growth of the local economy and the wider roll-out of floating offshore wind technology, delivering transformational jobs, skills, supply chain, and port development opportunities, and playing a substantial part in Shetland, Scotland and the UK’s energy transition.”

He added that local and national fishing industry representatives made strong and consistent requests for consolidation away from the Arven South site.

Arven South is the second option lease agreement to be terminated from ScotWind after Shell handed back the 2GW CampionWind site east of Scotland last year (FN, 27 November, 2025, ‘Shell hands back lease for 860km2 wind farm’).

Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF) Elspeth Macdonald said Ocean Wind’s decision to hand back the Arven South lease was ‘certainly a welcome announcement from our perspective’.

She said the SFF had had ‘really good engagement’ with the developers of the three sites east of Shetland.

“These sites are potentially hugely significant in terms of their impact on fishing, and we have a very good working relationship with the developers and consultants,” she told Fishing News.

“Ocean Wind has decided not to continue with the most southern of the three sites. We know they plan to continue with the other Arven site – the one in the middle – and we’ll continue to engage with them on that.”

This story was taken from the latest issue of Fishing News. For further information on this story and for more reports on the UK and Irish commercial fishing sector, subscribe to Fishing News here or buy the latest single issue for just £3.50 here.