Agreements for lease signed for 8 GW of UK offshore wind projects
SeeNews Renewables
January 19 (Renewables Now) - The Crown Estate today said it signed Agreements for Lease for the six offshore wind projects with a potential capacity of about 8 GW under its Offshore Wind Leasing Round 4. The selection of the projects was announced in 2021. The signing of the agreements follows an assessment of the impact on environmental habitats. The leasing round moved ahead along with a commitment to the development of environmental compensation plans to offset expected impacts on two protected sites. Three of the projects are located off the coast of North Wales, Cumbria and Lancashire coast, and three are in the North Sea, off the coast of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire coast. Project Capacity (MW) Developer Dogger Bank South (West) 1,500 RWE Renewables Dogger Bank South (East) 1,500 RWE Renewables Outer Dowsing 1,500 TotalEnergies and Corio Generation Mona 1,500 A consortium of EnBW and BP Morecambe 480 Morecambe Offshore Windfarm Ltd, a joint venture between Cobra Instalaciones y Servicios, S.A. (Cobra) and Flotation Energy Ltd. Morgan 1,500 A consortium of EnBW and BP A map of the projects is available on The Crown Estate website. The Agreements for Lease allow the developers to further progress the projects. The schemes can start generating electricity by the end of the decade, contributing to the UK government’s target of 50 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030. Round 4 means The Crown Estate has now awarded rights totalling 41 GW, almost 12 GW of which is in operation. The seabed landlord is also preparing a leasing round in the Celtic Sea for an initial 4GW of floating offshore wind capacity. It says it plans to discuss future leasing opportunities with the market later in the year. The Agreements for Lease have a term of up to 10 years. Under them, developers pay annual option fees to The Crown Estate, with commitment across the six projects amounting to GBP 1 billion (USD 1.2bn/EUR 1.1bn) per year. The option payments reduce as projects move into a lease. (GBP 1.0 = USD 1.238/EUR 1.142)