The Crown Estate has launched its Round 4 offshore wind leasing competition for the rights to develop at least 7GW of new capacity off England and Wales.
The seabed landlord has narrowed final site locations to four broad zones where developers are free to propose new sites.
The Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC) has hailed today’s launch as a major step forward.
OWIC industry chair Benj Sykes said: “This announcement, fulfilling a commitment in the Sector Deal agreed with government earlier this year, is a key step in our journey to making offshore wind the backbone of Britain’s electricity system, as we target net zero carbon emissions.
“By 2030, at least a third of the UK’s electricity will come from offshore wind, which will play a significant role in decarbonising our electricity system.”
The four zones are located in water depths of up to 60 metres off Wales and north west England, off south east England, in the Dogger Bank and off East Anglia.
Final areas have been trimmed from 18 distinct regions around the UK that were identified at the start of consultations for the new round last year.
The Crown Estate said sites were removed from consideration because of proximity to defence ranges and exercise areas, visual sensitivity and overlap with high traffic shipping lanes.
Areas that carried consenting risk due to cumulative environmental impacts were also removed.
The Round 4 tender process will run from October 2019 to Autumn 2020.
Successful bidders will be chosen via a three-stage tender process that will evaluate each developers’ capability and their proposed projects, before using option fees to determine winners.
Developers will be granted 60-year seabed permits following a plan level Habitats Regulation Assessment that will take a further 12 months.
The Crown Estate expects seabed permits will be awarded in 2021 at the earliest, with the first of the new sites likely to come online in the late 2020s.
Crown Estate director of energy, minerals and infrastructure Huub den Rooijen said: “Leasing Round 4 is the next chapter in this remarkable transition, developed and refined through extensive engagement with the market and stakeholders, to deliver an attractive, fair, objective process, which helps to balance a range of interests in the marine environment.
“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.”
Developers are free to choose their preferred areas and can bid for sites large enough to support a maximum of 1.5GW in each zone. A maximum of 3.5GW new capacity can be located in any one area.
The minimum individual project size is 600MW in the Dogger Bank bid area and 400MW in the other zones, meaning the round will provide between five and 18 new projects in total.
RenewableUK estimates that an additional 7GW of new offshore wind will bring £20.8bn in investment in today’s prices and support over 9,000 full-time jobs, bringing significant benefits to coastal communities.
RenewableUK chief executive Hugh McNeal said: “(Round 4 leasing) will engender further momentum in our world-leading offshore wind sector, securing billions of pounds in investment in new infrastructure.
“These powerhouses of the future will create thousands of highly-skilled jobs, continuing the rapid regeneration of our coastal communities, as well as benefiting our UK-wide supply chain.”
The Crown Estate will hold a ‘Bidders Information Day’ on 9 October to provide potential participants with a detailed overview of the Round 4 process.