The Crown Estate has announced today the first series of agreements reached with offshore wind developers, including EDF Energy Renewables, Eneco Wind UK Limited (Eneco) and Forewind Limited, to replace their previous zone development agreements with project specific agreements.
Since the award of zone agreements in 2009, developers have had exclusive rights to areas of UK seabed to identify the best locations to develop large scale offshore wind projects. With this appraisal phase now largely complete, developer focus is shifting to the development and delivery of the resulting projects.
As announced in 2014, the Crown Estate has offered streamlined terms for project specific ‘agreement for leases’ (AfLs), alongside the hand-back of seabed rights for the remaining parts of the zone which are no longer required.
The two agreements reached with The Crown Estate are:
Additionally, the Crown Estate has confirmed it is in advanced discussions with the ScottishPower Renewables and Vattenfall Wind Power consortium in working towards the conclusion of the East Anglia Zone. As part of the discussion, the consortium is seeking additional projects to complement East Anglia THREE and East Anglia FOUR, and the East Anglia ONE project that is fully owned by ScottishPower Renewables.
The new projects will be finalised over the coming months, with the combined project capacity remaining within 7.2 gigawatts (GW), and each developer taking forward an allocation of projects independently.
Huub den Rooijen, Head of Offshore Wind said: “This is an exciting time in the UK offshore wind market. We are already on a path which will see 10% of UK electricity demand met by offshore wind by 2020.
“Today’s announcement shows the confidence the market has in the future of the sector, with developers committing to invest in the planning and consenting of projects that will help form the backbone of UK offshore wind development beyond 2020. The scale of these projects offers the opportunity to provide energy security, drive down costs and stimulate economic development.”
Image: Navitus Bay