Crown Estate Scotland reveals offshore wind leasing details

Crown Estate Scotland has published some preliminary details for developers, ahead of its next leasing round for offshore wind sites later this year.

The public body has released a series of documents as part of the “pre-launch” for the leasing round, which it claimed would help developers start preparing their proposals ahead of a formal launch in October.

They include draft offer documents, leasing registration and application forms, as well as draft licence notes.

In a statement, the public body said the documents are available upon request from Crown Estate Scotland until 30 August.

The deadline for applications is expected to be between February and April 2020, with decisions on which applications are successful being made between May and July 2020.

But it also added that these documents will be subject to revision up until the October launch and therefore “should not be treated as final”.

According to Crown Estate Scotland, the final timings of the round will be directly linked to the development of Marine Scotland’s sectoral plan for offshore wind.

Last month, the Crown Estate, which is a separate public body, announced revised plans for its next offshore wind leasing round, which will cover seabed sites around England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The updated tender process for Offshore Wind Round 4 now includes a multi-cycle bidding process to award projects in sequence through daily bidding cycles.

The Crown Estate Scotland’s head of energy and infrastructure, John Robertson, said: “Today marks an important step towards an offshore wind leasing process which will attract investment to Scotland to help reduce climate change emissions and enable wider socio-economic benefits for communities.

“By providing this information now, we will enable developers to start their preparations so that they are in a position to submit suitable applications when the time comes.”