Wind among the Jewels

Crown Estate reaches Round Three

Although Shell shocked the renewables industry by pulling out of the massive London Array project, a big future still beckons for offshore wind in the UK. The Crown Estate (which owns the seabed within UK territorial waters) has now launched Round Three of its site-leasing programme. It’s inviting bids for new development sectors where operators can build offshore wind farms with a potential combined capacity of some 25GW. That’s a giant step for the industry’s coming of age, building on the 8GW currently under development through Rounds One and Two. What’s more, the Crown Estate will be investing its own money this time, not in actually building or operating wind farms, but to meet up to 50% of the cost of getting sites through the planning permission stage.

26 June 2008

Roger East