The Crown Estate has confirmed five definite zones for a new offshore wind leasing round in UK waters, with a further four still under consideration and nine more not being taken forward.
The five regions that will definitely be part of Round 4 are Dogger Bank, Southern North Sea, East Anglia, North Wales and Irish Sea.
These regions are “technically feasible, include sufficiently large areas of available seabed for offshore wind development and have lower levels of development constraint”, Crown Estate said.
The four areas still under consideration are the Yorkshire Coast, The Wash, South East and Anglesey.
“Additional work is required to build the evidence base and engage with technical stakeholders about these areas, in order to better understand the seabed resource and constraints and confirm their inclusion,” the seabed landlord said.
Nine regions will not be taken forward because they are “impacted by significant development constraints, which would be challenging to mitigate”, it added.
The constraints include defence ranges and exercise areas, visual sensitivity and overlapping with shipping routes that contain traffic of more than 1000 ships per year.
The regions no longer under consideration are Durham Coast, Thames Approaches, Kent Coast, West of the Isle of Wight, South West, Bristol Channel (English), Bristol Channel (Welsh), Cardigan Bay and Northern Ireland.
Crown Estate said that as the plans progress, it will continue to engage with technical stakeholders and build the evidence base on the nine regions being taken forward at this stage.
“This will enable it to finalise the regions to be offered to market, ahead of confirming the launch of Round 4, and later, help to inform developers in their identification of sites.”
It added that capacity is likely to be increased to 7GW from from 6GW in “light of strong market appetite and the desire to ensure a sufficient pipeline is in place”.
The Crown Estate senior development manager Jonny Boston said: “We are pleased to share the work we’ve undertaken since the summer to refine our initial proposals for Round 4, building on the extensive and constructive feedback we received from statutory bodies and the market.
“To reach this point, we’ve undertaken significant analysis, in close engagement with statutory stakeholders, to help build a detailed picture of seabed resource and constraints around England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
“We will continue to refine this work as we progress with our plans, helping build the evidence base to reduce consenting risk, balance a range of needs on the seabed, and ensure developers are well placed to bring the strongest possible projects forward.”
The Crown Estate is also commissioning additional work on issues of uncertainty, including further assessments on marine protected area sensitivities, ornithology and visibility analysis.
It will hold an engagement event with the market on 26 November, at which further detail on the proposed tender design will be shared.