Tuesday 27 July 2021

New floating wind technology in the UK has taken an important step forward with the announcement that 300MW of new projects, identified through The Crown Estate’s Test and Demonstration leasing opportunity, have been given the green light to progress to the next stage of assessment.

The three projects, each located in the Celtic Sea, have satisfied the initial application criteria set out by The Crown Estate, demonstrating technical competence, delivery capability and technological innovation.

The next stage will see the projects subject to plan-level Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) to assess possible impacts on protected marine habitats. Subject to the outcome of this assessment, the applicants could then be granted seabed agreements for lease.

The three projects are:

The 100MW Whitecross project, located off the coast of Devon and Cornwall. Brought forward by Offshore Wind Limited, a Joint Venture between Cobra Instalaciones y Servicios, S.A. and Flotation Energy plc.

The Llŷr 1 and Llŷr 2 projects, comprising two separate 100MW sites, each testing different technologies, located south of Pembroke, on the Welsh coast. Brought forward by Floventis Energy Limited, a newly established joint venture between SBM Offshore and Cierco Ltd.

The projects have all come forward through The Crown Estate’s Test & Demonstration leasing opportunity - designed to support the development and commercialisation of innovative energy technologies that will be vital to the UK’s future energy system and Net Zero transition.

The three projects would each test new foundation and mooring technologies, using new designs, materials and construction approaches. They also could play an important role in supporting the development and momentum of the regional supply chain, helping support new jobs, skills and economic growth.

Subject to HRA, these three new projects, together with the wider UK pipeline and any potential floating wind capacity identified through the ongoing Scotwind leasing process, could play an important role in supporting the Government’s target to deliver 1GW of floating wind capacity in UK waters by 2030.

Together with Blue Gem’s Erebus project and TwinHub’s project at the WaveHub site, they could quadruple the capacity of the floating wind pipeline in the Celtic Sea alone, to over 400MW. To put this in context, a total of approximately 130MW of floating wind is currently installed globally.