The Crown Estate has awarded seabed rights to Blue Gem Wind for the proposed 96MW Erebus floating wind demonstration project in the Welsh waters of the Celtic Sea.
Erebus is the first floating wind project off Wales to secure an Agreement for Lease.
Blue Gem Wind, a joint venture between Total and Simply Blue Energy, will be able to progress with environmental assessments and surveys, secure access to the grid and seek planning consent through the statutory processes.
Blue Gem Wind project developer Hugh Kelly said: “We are incredibly pleased to sign the Agreement for Lease for Erebus.
“This first project in Wales will begin to unlock the significant potential of floating wind in the Celtic Sea.
“It is the first of the stepping-stone projects required to launch a new chapter in the development of offshore energy in the South West; a new industry that can deliver significant benefits for the local supply chain and the coastal communities of Wales and the wider UK.”
Erebus, 44km from the coast, is part of the Crown Estate’s ongoing Offshore Wind Test and Demonstration initiative, designed to facilitate pre-commercial innovation through the trial of new and emerging technologies in live conditions.
The award builds on two further offshore wind developments in Wales.
The first is the the Crown Estate’s award of seabed rights for the proposed extension to the Gwynt y Mor offshore wind farm, which is known as Awel y Mor), off the coast of North Wales.
Once consented, the extension could deliver up to 576MW of capacity, adjacent to the existing project, supporting Wales in delivery of its net zero ambitions.
The second, confirmed last year, is the inclusion of areas of Wales’s seabed in the Crown Estate’s Offshore Wind Leasing Round 4, the first major UK leasing round in a decade.
The Northern Wales and Irish Sea Bidding Areas is one of four seabed areas that have been made available to the market as part of the round four process.
Projects from Leasing Round 4 will be identified later this year, as part of a competitive tender process, and subject to an environmental assessment, could be awarded rights in 2021.
Once consented and developed, these projects could be operational as early as 2030.
Crown Estate head of energy development Will Apps said: “Welsh waters are home to a thriving offshore wind industry and as this continues to evolve and mature, innovation will be vital to unlocking a sustainable pipeline of new capacity over the longer term.
“With an increasingly busy marine environment, we need to explore new technologies in more diverse and technically challenging areas which is why we are delighted to see the Erebus Project take this important step.”