The Crown Estate has launched the third round for its leasing program for offshore wind.
They control the seabed in UK territorial waters and plan to share the development risks for offshore wind projects. They have proposals for 25 gigawatts of offshore wind to be installed by 2020. They plan to invest about half the cost to gain planning approvals, which include projects to address environmental concerns, consenting bottlenecks, supply chain constraints and connection of new wind farms to the national grid.
"The new approach to the deployment of offshore wind requires us take an important facilitating role in which we will share developer’s risk. For the first time we will be investing directly in offshore wind farm development," says Rob Hastings, Director of Marine Estates, The Crown Estate.
The first rounds of leases on seabeds could result in 8 GW of capacity – the current round is expected to accelerate offshore windfarm development. A bid will go out shortly for exclusive development rights.
The first phases of the wind farms should be operational by 2015.
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