The seabed landlord Crown Estate has presented a revised tender design for offshore wind leasing round 4 for offshore wind sites off England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The UK Crown Estate holds rights to seabeds around British Isles for wind and wave power.
It announced a revised tender design for awarding rights to UK sites capable of supporting at least 7GW of offshore wind at an event attended by more than 100 industry representatives.
This latest update follows over 18 months of engagement with the market and stakeholders since November 2017, when The Crown Estate first announced its intention to explore the potential for new offshore wind leasing in the waters around England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
In light of the feedback received at several stages through this process, and having assessed a range of potential alternative models, The Crown Estate has now confirmed the tender process for Round 4. This has been developed to deliver a fair, balanced and competitive tender, which balances a broad range of interests.
Jonny Boston, Business Development Manager at The Crown Estate, said: “The UK offshore wind sector, the world’s leading market, has matured and evolved significantly since our last major leasing round, over a decade ago. In light of this, and building on continued market and government appetite, we have been working closely with industry and stakeholders over many months, listening to their feedback to help inform the design of Leasing Round 4."
Jonny added: “Our goal has been to design a process that is attractive, accessible and fair, supports the sustainable development of the seabed and ultimately delivers a robust pipeline of new projects that will help the UK’s transition to a low carbon economy. Today’s update confirms the tender design for Round 4, giving developers as much information as possible, to inform their planning ahead of launch later this year.”
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