Floating wind farms could be built off the coasts of Cornwall and Pembrokeshire after the Queen’s property manager identified a group of sites in the Celtic Sea that could accommodate them.
The Crown Estate, which generates money for the Treasury and the royal family, has published five “research areas” that will be reduced to development plots to accommodate wind power generation.
Once the project development areas have been agreed, they will be offered to companies through a bidding process, which is due to be launched in mid-2023.
The Crown Estate expects these areas to provide 4 gigawatts of floating offshore wind power by 2035, powering nearly 4 million homes.
Celtic Sea sites identified as possibilities for floating wind farms
Offshore wind farms are usually built on the seabed near the coast. The structures that could be housed in the Celtic Sea allow turbines to be installed on floating concrete and steel platforms, which are anchored to the seabed by means of anchors or flexible cables and sit just above or below the waterline.
Innovation means they can be located in deeper waters, creating less opposition from local residents and businesses on land who do not like the presence of wind turbines for aesthetic reasons. It also means that structures benefit from stronger winds and are less likely to cause conflicts with fishing fleets or disruptions to bird nesting sites and naval bases.
The Crown Estate said it had identified the research areas by studying various factors, such as “navigation routes, fishing activity and environmental sensitivities.” Wind farms will not be visible from the ground apart from a potential site north of the Isles of Scilly, he said.
At a stakeholder meeting earlier this year, concerns were raised about whether floating wind farms would cause problems for fishing crews of boats fishing for crab and lobster in the area. It was also requested that the size of the buffer zones between the farms and nearby vessels be expanded.
Wind farms could also be located with carbon capture and storage schemes or coordinate activities with telecommunications cabling projects, stakeholders said.
Last month, Crown Ownership said a record auction of offshore wind farm plots has increased the value of its offshore business by 22% over last year to £ 5 billion.
Aside from its ambitions in the Celtic Sea, the estate has licensed six offshore wind farms off the coast of England and Wales that could generate up to £ 9bn over the next 10 years. Among the winners were the German RWE Renewables and a consortium, which includes the oil company BP.
Crown property profits rose £ 43.4 million to £ 312.7 million a year through the end of March.
The estate delivers all its profits to the Treasury before 25% is returned to the royal house in the form of a sovereign grant, a funding formula that is under government review. The grant was increased in 2017 from its previous level of 15% to pay for major renovations at Buckingham Palace.
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Huub den Rooijen, the marine director general of the Crown Estate, said: “The Celtic Sea has the potential to become one of the world’s largest renewable energy basins, providing economic growth and abundant clean energy. “.
Energy Minister Greg Hands said: “We already have the largest offshore wind deployment in Europe. Floating technology is key to unleashing the full potential of our coast.”
Earlier this year, the Scottish arm of the Crown Estate auctioned off offshore space to 17 projects, with most of the capacity earmarked for offshore wind. The first floating offshore wind farm has been in operation in front of Scotland since 2017.