The Crown Estate (TCE) has provided more information on seabed leases for floating wind energy in the Celtic Sea, so that developers can form consortia and prepare for a tender, which will launch in mid-2023. TCE will offer 60-year leases, to enable two project lifecycles, and it expects to award projects to at least three different bidders for its four 1GW projects .
The sea area is intended to provide 4GW of renewable energy capacity by 2035, and has potential to accommodate another 20GW by 2045.
In July TCE published five broad ‘Areas of Search’ which following consultation have now been refined into five smaller areas of seabed, which will be further refined into potential Project Development Areas. Consortia will be expected to bid for projects of 300MW to 1GW, which can be delivered in stages and which can include hydrogen production. They must use floating turbines but developers are not required to have floating wind experience, the assumption being that it can be brought in to the projects.
The Crown Estate has advised developers that, as part of their participation, they will be expected to provide a plan of their early investment in support of an internationally competitive supply chain. It said submission of these plans, alongside other legal, financial and technical elements, will determine whether participants qualify for proceeding to the final stage of the tender.
The grid offtake arrangements will be announced after NGESO publishes its Grid and Holistic Network Design plans in early 2023.
See the full developer presentation here.