Potential bidders have been invited to set out their plans to deliver three floating offshore wind farms in the Celtic Sea.
The Crown Estate has called for developers in Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5 to include initiatives linked to skills development, apprenticeship opportunities, community impact, sustainable procurement and nature restoration as part of their bids.
Bidders will also need to outline how they intend to work with ports in the execution of their plans, identifying both a primary and alternative port that they propose to use for the assembly of the windfarms.
These plans will then form contractual obligations as part of the lease agreement for successful bidders.
These new requirements are an addition to the Round 5 tender process tender process.
Research published in February this year by The Crown Estate showed that the supply chain for new Celtic Sea floating wind farms could create more than 5,000 new jobs and deliver a £1.4 billion boost to the economy.
In addition, Round 5 is also the first leasing round to be brought to market with an agreed plan for connecting the new wind farms to the UK’s electricity grid
This aims to help remove some of the barriers developers face when progressing plans for offshore wind farms.
Grid connections
The Electricity Systems Operator (ESO) has published its Celtic Sea network design recommendation, giving developers greater clarity on how their projects will be connected to the grid.
Beyond 2030: Celtic Sea proposes connecting two projects covering up to 3GW of capacity into two locations in South Wales and one project of up to 1.5GW into the South West of England.
One Welsh project would use a high voltage direct current (HVDC) connection into a potential new South Wales Connection Node, and the other two would use high voltage alternating current (HVAC) technology into Carmarthenshire and North Devon.
The proposals will require no new overhead lines and were chosen because they make better use of current transmission infrastructure compared to other options.
The Crown Estate hopes this model will act as a template for future leasing rounds, helping further accelerate the deployment of offshore wind.
Managing director for Marine at The Crown Estate Gus Jaspert said: “As the need for new offshore wind capacity increases, we have challenged ourselves to find ways to accelerate its deployment.
“This includes a multi-million-pound programme of technical and environmental surveys upfront, and our groundbreaking collaboration with the ESO, which means that bidders looking to develop floating wind farms in the Celtic Sea can progress their schemes in the knowledge that there is already a rigorously assessed recommendation for the network needed to connect them to the grid.
ESO director of strategic energy planning and chief engineer Julian Leslie said: “We have undertaken a rigorous process, in consultation with a range of stakeholders, to design the network needed to connect enough renewable capacity to power four million homes. Our proposal has additional potential as a catalyst for coordination with future green energy developments in South Wales and South West England into the future.”
The leasing round, covering seabed off the coast of South Wales and South West England, marks the first major phase of offshore wind development in the Celtic Sea.
First announced in 2021, Round 5 was initially intended to establish 4GW of floating capacity by 2035. This was later increased to up to 4.5GW, spread over three areas with potential capacities of 1.5GW.
The tender kicked off it December 2023, with the latest phase of the round following the conclusion of the initial Pre-Qualification Questionnaire in June 2024.
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