08 Feb 2021 | 09:01 UTC — London

UK's Crown Estate awards 8 GW of new offshore wind seabed leases

Highlights

Six projects off east, west coasts of England, Wales

RWE, Total, EnBW, BP among winners

Projects now move to environmental assessment

London — The UK's Crown Estate has awarded seabed leases to six offshore wind projects in waters around England and Wales under its Round 4 leasing process.

The projects, with represent 7.98 GW of potential capacity, now progress to environmental assessment, the Crown Estate said Feb. 8.

"With 39 GW of offshore wind already in operation, construction and planning, projects emerging from Round 4 could deliver a 21% increase in the pipeline, a major contribution to supporting the government's target of delivering 40 GW by 2030," it said.

Successful bidders, including RWE, Total, EnBW and BP, have committed an initial GBP879 million ($1.2 billion) in option fee deposits.

Junior energy minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said energy delivered by the leasing round "will help power 7 million homes."

At average consumption of 2,900 kWh per household per year, this equates to just over 20 TWh/year, which looks conservative versus a calculation using a 40% capacity factor for 7.89 GW installed, giving 28 TWh/year.

Habitats Regulations Assessments must now be completed before The Crown Estate can award seabed rights, expected to conclude in Spring 2022, the estate said.

Subject to a successful outcome, developers would then be granted an Agreement for Lease, allowing projects to progress to the planning phase.

"The projects could begin to generate clean electricity by the end of the decade," the Crown Estate said.

UK ROUND 4 OFFSHORE WIND SEABED AWARDS, FEBRUARY 2021

Project identifier
Bidding Area
Region, location
Successful bidder
Proposed project capacity (MW)
1
Bidding Area 1 (Dogger Bank)
Off the Yorkshire Coast, northeast of Scarborough
RWE Renewables
1,500
2
Bidding Area 1 (Dogger Bank)
Off the Yorkshire Coast, northeast of Scarborough
RWE Renewables
1,500
3
Bidding Area 2 (Southern North Sea region, the eastern parts of the Wash and the East Anglia region)
Off the Lincolnshire coast, east of the Humber estuary
Green Investment Group - Total
1,500
4
Bidding Area 4 (North Wales region, the Irish Sea region, and the northern part of the Anglesey region)
Off the north Wales coast, northeast of Anglesey
Consortium of EnBW and BP
1,500
5
Bidding Area 4 (North Wales region, the Irish Sea region, and the northern part of the Anglesey region)
Off the Lancashire coast, west of Blackpool and southwest of Morecambe Bay
Offshore Wind Limited, a Joint Venture between Cobra Instalaciones y Servicios and Flotation Energy
480
6
Bidding Area 4 (North Wales region, the Irish Sea region, and the northern part of the Anglesey region)
Off the coast of Barrow-in-Furness, west of Morecambe Bay
Consortium of EnBW and BP
1,500
Total
7,980

Source: Crown Estate