Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) teamed up with U.S. civil engineering group Fluor to develop new UK offshore wind farms, the British company said today.

SSE said its renewable energy development unit Airtricity had joined the UK operating arm of Fluor Corporation, Fluor Ltd, to form a consortium called Seagreen Wind Energy.

The consortium is bidding for rights to build farms under the Crown Estate's round three offshore wind farm development programme.

The Crown Estate is an independent body which owns all the seabed within 12 nautical miles of the UK coast. It said last month it had received bids from 18 firms or consortia to develop round three farms, which are aimed at helping the UK to develop 25 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2020.

It will compile a bid shortlist and hopes to award the rights by the end of this year. Seagreen Wind Energy is the second consortium formed by SSE to bid for round-three projects.

The group said in February it was joining forces with RWE Innogy and two Norwegian groups, Statkraft and Statoil Hydro, to form a consortium called Forewind.

"Seagreen Wind Energy combines the extensive renewables development, asset management and operations experience of one of the UK's leading energy companies, with the offshore project delivery expertise of one of the world's largest publicly owned engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance services companies," Scottish & Southern said in a statement.