Crown Estate Details Round 5 Plans
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
The Crown Estate has revealed details of a new leasing round, known as Round 5, for three commercial-scale floating wind projects in the Celtic Sea.
These are the first two paragraphs, which outline the three initial projects.
Located off the coast of South Wales and South West England, the sites will have a combined capacity of up to 4.5 GW, enough to supply four million homes with renewable energy.
The new wind farms are expected to be the first phase of commercial development in the region, with the UK Government confirming as part of its Autumn Statement in November its intention to unlock space for up to a further 12 GW of capacity in the Celtic Sea.
It looks like there could be another 7.5 GW available.
These four paragraphs indicate that the Crown Estate. expect the developers to to develop the local infratructure.
New details about the Round 5 auction include upfront investment in important workstreams to de-risk the process for developers and accelerate the deployment of projects.
This includes a multi-million-pound programme of marine surveys to better understand the physical and environmental properties around the locations of the new wind farms, as well as carrying out a Plan-Level Habitats Regulations Assessment early on in the process.
An Information Memorandum published today, on 7th December, also includes details of a series of contractual commitments for developers to create positive social and environmental impacts, focused on skills and training, tackling inequalities in employment, environmental benefits, and working with local communities.
In addition, bidders will be required to demonstrate commitments for the timely access to the port infrastructure needed to develop their projects, the Crown Estate said.
But it also appears that the Crown Estate are doing their bit by carrying out marine surveys.
Conclusion
It looks like the Crown Estate are making thing easier for developers, so that they increase the interest in Celtic Sea wind farms.
We’ll see if the strategy is successful, when contracts are awarded.
No comments yet.
The Anonymous Widower 
Leave a comment