The Crown Estate, which manages the seabed rights in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, has launched its fourth offshore wind leasing round. Potential developers will have the opportunity to bid for at least 7 GW of new seabed rights.
"Round 4 projects will take the UK sector from strength to strength, delivering clean, affordable, home-grown electricity and joining a robust pipeline of projects in UK waters, which together will deliver a fourfold increase in operational offshore wind capacity by 2030," Huub den Rooijen, director of energy, minerals and infrastructure at the Crown Estate, said in a Sept. 19 statement.
The three-stage tender process will begin in October and will run until autumn 2020. It will include a geographically diverse pipeline with a maximum of 3.5 GW within any one area and an extended 60-year lease term.
The Crown Estate initially identified 18 seabed regions which it has now trimmed down to four, known as Dogger Bank, Eastern Regions, South East, and Northern Wales and Irish Sea.
Following project award, the Crown Estate will undertake a plan-level habitats regulations assessment, or HRA. Subject to the HRA outcome, new seabed rights could be awarded as early as 2021 and projects could become operational by the late 2020s.
The U.K. currently has 9.3 GW of operational offshore wind projects, 4.4 GW under construction and 20 GW in the development pipeline. The country is on track to deliver over 30 GW by 2030.
