UK Offshore Wind Industry Gets Boost With Final Round 3 Plans
The UK Crown Estate has announced agreements with ScottishPower Renewables, Vattenfall, and DONG Energy for Round 3 offshore wind development zones.
The UK Crown Estate is the seabed manager for the United Kingdom, and announced agreements this week with three major offshore wind developers, which have reconfigured or identified new projects within existing Round 3 offshore wind development zones. The Crown Estate awarded Round 3 zone agreements in 2009, and since then developers have had exclusive rights to their awarded territory to identify the best locations for offshore wind farms to be developed.
With this phase of development largely completed, the Crown Estate has reconfigured or identified new zones to better streamline and strengthen the UK offshore wind industry pipeline.
“Today’s announcements are another important step for the offshore wind sector on its path to becoming a large-scale, affordable and reliable power source,” said Huub den Rooijen, Director of Energy, Minerals & Infrastructure. “With the industry on track to supply 10% of the UK’s electricity demand by 2020, these infrastructure projects will contribute to its continued growth into the 2020s.”
Danish wind energy giant DONG Energy has reached an agreement to reconfigure the Hornsea zone, which it acquired from Mainstream Renewable Power and Siemens Financial Services in August of last year.
As a result of its subsequent appraisal of the area, and in conjunction with the Crown Estate, DONG Energy has agreed to lease three project areas — Hornsea Project Two, Three, and Four. The previously identified Hornsea Project Three has now been split into two separate projects, Hornsea Project Three, to the east of Hornsea Project Two, and Hornsea Project Four, to the west of Hornsea Project Two.
The Hornsea Project announcements come only a month after DONG Energy consented to build the 1.2 GW Hornsea One offshore wind farm. The remaining projects have a total possible capacity of between 4 GW to 5 GW.
“We are very pleased to have reached this agreement with The Crown Estate for the Hornsea projects, which highlights once again our absolute commitment to the UK offshore wind market,” said Brent Cheshire, DONG Energy’s UK Country Chairman. “Having just confirmed that we are building Hornsea Project One – the world’s biggest offshore wind farm – we see these projects as a vital part of our post-2020 pipeline.”
The Crown Estate also provided information on other agreements which were made in conjunction with its Round 3 decisions.
ScottishPower Renewables, already developing the 714 MW East Anglia ONE project and the East Anglia THREE — which has a capacity of up to 1.2 GW — will also now take forward East Anglia TWO and ONE, both with capacity of up to 800 MW.
Meanwhile, also in the East Anglia Zone area, Vattenfall is taking forward two projects in the northern area, each of which will have a target capacity of 1.8 GW — one of which, currently known as Tranche 1, includes part of the seabed previously identified as East Anglia FOUR.
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