The Crown Estate has announced an additional 2000 MW of new capacity to be added to existing Round 1 and 2 offshore wind projects. The additional capacity should be enough to power some 1.4 million average UK homes with clean electricity. Three wind farm developers and operators have been selected to extend existing five sites with 1.7 Gw of new capacity, while an additional 340 MW has been approved as extension on another two sites. The new extensions are going to provide the necessary flow of construction and development projects until the start of Round 3 activities.

The chosen developers are all existing Round 1 and 2 operators, but will have to go through the appropriate statutory consenting process, including full new planning applications, Environmental Impact Assessment studies, and a full consultation. Here's a breakdown of the assigned capacity and developers:

• SSE Renewables and RWE Npower Renewables (Greater Gabbard > Galloper Wind Farm, 504 MW)
• Vattenfall Wind Power (Kentish Flats > Kentish Flats 2, 51 MW)
• Vattenfall Wind Power (Thanet > Thanet 2, 147 MW)
• Dong Wind UK (Burbo Bank > Burbo Bank Extension, 234 MW)
• Dong Wind UK (Walney > Walney Extension, 750 MW)

Construction work on these extensions is expected to start in 2014, and should be finalized in 2016, just before the planned start of Round 3 development.

[source: The Crown Estate]