The UK government on Tuesday gave green light for six fixed offshore wind projects, with the potential to generate renewable electricity for more than 7 million households.
The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy gave the approval for the projects to enter into an Agreement for Lease with The Crown Estate.
Business and Energy Secretary the Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP said:"This month saw the price of offshore wind fall to record lows and today’s announcement will take us another step closer to increasing current levels of capacity almost five-fold by 2030.
“We are already a world leader in offshore wind and these new sites will help secure more clean, affordable, homegrown power for millions of households across the country, while reducing their reliance on costly fossil fuels.”
The six Offshore Wind Leasing Round 4 projects are:
Region/ location | Successful bidder | Proposed project capacity (MW) |
Off the Yorkshire Coast, North East of Scarborough | RWE Renewables | 1500 |
Off the Yorkshire Coast, North East of Scarborough | RWE Renewables | 1500 |
Green Investment Group - Total | 1500 | |
Consortium of EnBW and BP | 1500 | |
Off the Lancashire Coast, West of Blackpool and South West of Morecambe Bay | Offshore Wind Limited, a Joint Venture between Cobra Instalaciones y Servicios, S.A. and Flotation Energy plc | 480 |
Off the coast of Barrow-In-Furness, West of Morecambe Bay | Consortium of EnBW and BP | 1500 |
Over the next few weeks, The Crown Estate will communicate with the preferred bidders for each of the six projects to confirm next steps in connection with the Offshore Wind Leasing Round 4. Any Agreements for Lease granted will secure the necessary environmental mitigation and compensatory measures.
The projects could begin to generate clean electricity by the end of the decade.
According to the Crown Estate, the UK current pipeline of offshore wind farms already in operation, construction, and planning now stands at 43GW, with a further 37GW of potential capacity from Offshore Wind Leasing Round 4, Scotwind leasing activity, and the up to 4GW of floating wind leasing in the Celtic Sea.