Crown Estate grants seabed rights for six offshore windfarm extensions

The Crown Estate has awarded lease agreements to six offshore windfarm extensions with a total capacity of up to 2.8GW.

The rights were granted as part of an offshore wind leasing round launched specifically for extension projects in 2017.

“Extensions projects offer a valuable way of enabling new, low cost offshore wind capacity, making efficient use of our world-class seabed resources and building on developers’ existing project knowledge and infrastructure,” said Will Apps, head of energy development for the Crown Estate.

“Each project has the potential to play a vital role in supporting the nation’s clean energy transition and we look forward to following their progress as they move through the planning process.”

The six projects awarded lease agreements are:

• North Falls – an extension of up to 504MW to the Greater Gabbard windfarm off the coast of Suffolk. The project partners are RWE and SSE, which each own a 50 per cent stake in the joint venture and are co-owners of the existing windfarm.
• Rampion 2 – an extension of up to 1.2GW to the Rampion windfarm off the coast Sussex. The project partners are RWE (50.1 per cent), a consortium led by Macquarie (25 per cent) and Enbridge (24.9 per cent).
• Awel y Mor – an extension of up to 576MW to the Gwynt y Mor windfarm off the coast of North Wales. The project partners are RWE (60 per cent), Stadtwerke Munchen (30 per cent) and Siemens Financial Services (10 per cent).
• Five Estuaries – an extension of up to 353MW to the Galloper windfarm off the coast of Suffolk. The project partners are RWE (25 per cent), a consortium led by Macquarie (25 per cent), Siemens Financial Services (25 per cent), ESB (12.5 per cent) and Sumitomo Corporation (12.5 per cent).
• An extension of up to 402MW to the Dudgeon windfarm off the coast of Norfolk. Equinor is the lead developer.
• An extension of up 317MW to the Sheringham Shoal windfarm off the coast of Norfolk. Equinor is the lead developer.

RWE said the four projects it is developing are expected to secure planning permission within three to five years and could be operational by the end of the current decade. Tom Glover, chief commercial officer for RWE Renewables, added: “I expect the four offshore wind extension projects to bring significant benefits to the UK energy infrastructure and economy. They present a potential multi-billion-pound investment and could grow the local supply chain as well as lead to the creation of hundreds of jobs.”