The Crown Estate has announced bidders who have been awarded development rights for Round 3 of offshore wind development in the UK. This represents a large strategic investment that is aimed at bringing Britain closer to achieveing its renewable energy goals. Once completed, Round 3 is expected to deliver as much as a quarter of all the electricity needs in the UK by 2020.
Nine companies have signed exclusive Zone Development Agreements (ZDA) with the Crown Estate. The companies and zones are:
- Moray Firth Zone (1.3 GW) – Moray Offshore Renewables, 75% owned by EDP Renovaveis and 25% owned by SeaEnergy Renewables
- Firth of Forth Zone (3.5 GW) – SeaGreen Wind Energy, equally owned by SSE Renewables and Fluor
- Dogger Bank Zone (9 GW) – the Forewind Consortium, equally owned by each of SSE Renewables, RWE Npower Renewables, Statoil and Statkraft
- Hornsea Zone (4 GW)- Siemens Project Ventures and Mainstream Renewable Power, equally owned by Mainstream Renewable Power and Siemens Project Ventures and involving Hochtief Construction
- Norfolk Bank Zone (7.2 GW) – East Anglia Offshore Wind, equally owned by Scottish Power Renewables and Vattenfall Vindkraft
- Hastings Zone (0.6 GW) – Eon Climate and Renewables UK,
- West of Isle of Wight Zone (0.9 GW) – Eneco New Energy
- Bristol Channel Zone (1.5 GW) – RWE Npower Renewables, the UK subsidiary of RWE Innogy
- Irish Sea Zone (4.2 GW) – Centrica Renewable Energy, involving RES Group
The UK is looking a total of 32.2 GW of new offshore wind capacity from Round 3, bringing in billions of dollars in investments into the UK economy, as well as creating thousands of jobs over the next ten years.
[source: The Crown Estate]
