UK's Crown Estate plans floating wind leasing round in Celtic Sea

New York — The UK's Crown Estate has begun the design of a new leasing round for early commercial-scale floating wind projects in the Celtic Sea, the property management body said March 24.

The UK aims to have 1 GW of floating offshore wind capacity installed in its waters by 2030. The technology promises greater yields from deeper water locations, with early demonstrator Hywind Scotland reporting a record high capacity factor of 57%.

"There is appetite to develop projects that are around 300 MW in size, moving the sector onto an 'early commercial' phase, with a desire for a pipeline of opportunities that helps to continue to build market confidence," the Crown Estate said.

"Floating offshore projects are going to be vital in ensuring we unlock the full potential of natural resources in the windiest parts around our coastline and ensure the UK remains a world leader in offshore wind," said Energy Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan.

Over 30 parties responded to the Crown Estate's consultation in December 2020 on how to design the leasing round, showing "strong interest in new floating wind rights from a capable and motivated pool of potential market participants," it said.

The market was confident current floating wind technology would allow the sector to deploy early commercial scale projects of around 300 MW around the south Wales coast and the southwest of England.

The Crown Estate is to provide further details on leasing design in the coming months, it said.

Last year the Crown Estate's test and demonstration project awarded rights to Blue Gem Wind for the 96 MW Erebus floating wind project in Welsh waters. It said it would continue to support pre-commercial projects for a range of seabed conditions and locations, setting out a strategy for this soon.

On March 23, Norway's Equinor said its 30 MW Hywind Scotland asset, the world's first floating offshore wind farm, achieved an average capacity factor of 57.1% in the 12 months to March 2020, setting a new record in the UK.

"A higher capacity factor means lower intermittency and higher value," Equinor said, comparing Hywind Scotland's average factor of 54% across the two years of its operation to an offshore wind average in the UK of around 40%.

Close to 80% of the world's offshore wind resource potential is in waters deeper than 60 meters, Equinor said. Its goal is for floating wind to be competitive with other forms of energy by 2030.