The Crown Estate as plans for Round 4 are unveiled

Proposed locations to be offered for new seabed rights

Following extensive engagement with market and statutory stakeholders, The Crown Estate has shared its updated proposals for Round 4 offshore wind leasing, at its latest stakeholder engagement event (November 2018).

The updates include The Crown Estate’s proposed refinement of available seabed regions – within which developers would have the opportunity to identify and propose sites. This work, underpinned by a detailed assessment of spatial constraints and developed in collaboration with statutory stakeholders, identifies: 

Five regions that The Crown Estate proposes to include in plans for a new leasing round, on the basis that they are technically feasible, include sufficiently large areas of available seabed for offshore wind development and have lower levels of development constraint. 

Four regions which The Crown Estate proposes to take forward for further consideration, on the basis that additional work is required to build the evidence base and engage with technical stakeholders about these areas, in order to better understand the seabed resource and constraints and confirm their inclusion.

Nine regions that will not be taken forward as part of Round 4, on the basis that they are impacted by significant development constraints, which would be challenging to mitigate, namely: defence ranges and exercise areas; visual sensitivity (i.e. where development would predominately or entirely be within 13km of shore) and overlap with shipping routes that contain traffic of more than 1,000 ships per year.

Stakeholder engagement

As plans progress, The Crown Estate will continue to engage with the RYA and its technical stakeholders to build the evidence base on the nine regions being taken forward at this stage. This will enable it to finalise the regions to be offered to market, ahead of confirming the launch of Round 4, and later, help to inform developers in their identification of sites.

To reach this point, The Crown Estate has undertaken extensive spatial analysis of technical resource and constraints, including other sea users and environmental sensitivities, through a combination of Geographic Information System (GIS) and qualitative analysis. 

The detailed analysis that underpins the regions refinement work will be published later this month, including: a Methodology Report, GIS model outputs, associated draft Characterisation Reports for each of the nine regions being taken forward at this stage and an Interim Summary Stakeholder Feedback Report. 

Other updates to The Crown Estate’s proposals shared at the event included:  

Capacity likely to be increased from 6GW to 7GW, in light of strong market appetite and the desire to ensure a sufficient pipeline is in place.  

Available regions to be extended from 50m to 60m water depths, after feedback from industry confirmed appetite for development of fixed foundation turbines beyond the 50m initially proposed. 

Following statutory stakeholder feedback, The Crown Estate is also commissioning additional work on key issues of uncertainty, including further assessments on marine protected area sensitivities, ornithology and visibility analysis. 

A parallel engagement event with the market will take place on 26 November, at which The Crown Estate will share further detail on the proposed tender design.

Jonny Boston, Senior Development Manager at The Crown Estate, said:  “We are pleased to share the work we’ve undertaken since the summer to refine our initial proposals for Round 4, building on the extensive and constructive feedback we received from statutory bodies and the market. 

“To reach this point, we’ve undertaken significant analysis, in close engagement with statutory stakeholders, to help build a detailed picture of seabed resource and constraints around England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

“We will continue to refine this work as we progress with our plans, helping build the evidence base to reduce consenting risk, balance a range of needs on the seabed, and ensure developers are well placed to bring the strongest possible projects forward.”

More information

For more information and to register to be kept informed about The Crown Estate’s work, please visit the offshore wind potential new leasing page of The Crown Estate website: www.thecrownestate.co.uk/potentialnewleasing.

The RYA believes that the impact that offshore renewable energy sites have on navigational safety for recreational boating can be minimised provided developers fully address navigational safety issues. For more information on the RYA’s position relating to offshore wind and today energy installations, visit the Current Affairs online hub.