Seabed agreements for 17 offshore wind projects have been agreed, Crown Estate Scotland has announced.

The ScotWind project, which allowed private companies to buy up parts of Scotland’s seabed to build offshore wind farms, will now move to the development phase.

The Scottish Government programme, run by Crown Estate Scotland, concluded in January and saw major energy companies including Scottish Power, Shell, SSE and BP among those who won the almost £700 million in contracts.

At the time, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the announcement was “possibly one of the most significant days in energy and industrial terms that Scotland has seen for a very, very long time”.

Now, projects are able to progress with initial agreements in place.

Colin Maciver, the head of offshore wind at Crown Estate Scotland, said: “Seventeen agreements are now in place to help deliver these offshore wind projects that are central to Scotland’s efforts to tackle the climate emergency, secure the UK’s energy supply, and generate billions of pounds of investment in Scotland.

“This is an early but critical step towards having turbines in the water, ready to generate clean energy. We look forward to working with all applicants over the years to come.”

Companies involved in the process have been forced to submit commitments to the Scottish supply chain, which will be published in the coming weeks, but Crown Estate Scotland have said the investment in Scottish companies could be as high as £1 billion per gigawatt of capacity built.