The Crown Estate is taking steps to enable the generation of up to an additional 4GW from several offshore wind farm projects in development, within the timeframe of the Government’s offshore wind target of 50GW by 2030.

The announcement follows requests from the developers of seven offshore wind farm projects who believe additional capacity can be generated from the areas of the seabed they hold existing rights for and recognises that since awarding seabed rights to these projects, offshore wind technology has improved, enabling more clean energy to be generated from the same seabed area.

Gus Jaspert, MD, marine, at The Crown Estate, said: “As demands on the seabed intensify, we’re taking a more strategic, holistic and data-led approach than ever before to ensure we make the most of this vital resource and that each area of the seabed we lease is working as hard as it can to contribute to the needs of our country and nature.”

The projects under consideration, and included in this process, were awarded rights in either The Crown Estate’s Offshore Wind Leasing Round 3, or The Crown Estate’s 2017 Offshore Wind Extensions opportunity, the latter of which sought to unlock additional capacity in the UK offshore wind portfolio in an efficient way, by extending existing offshore wind farms.

The UK is now the second largest offshore wind market in the world, generating 24 per cent of the global offshore wind capacity, and currently delivering 14 per cent of the UKs total electricity requirements.

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