UK identifies Celtic Sea floating offshore wind areas

UK seabed landlord the Crown Estate has identified five ‘areas of search’ that it believes are capable of supporting 4GW of combined floating offshore wind capacity in the Celtic Sea.

The areas (see map below) in the Celtic Sea – off the south-west coast of England and Wales – have been identified following technical analysis and talks between the UK and Welsh governments, government agencies and specialist stakeholders.

Further discussions will be used to refine the areas of search into smaller project development areas, the seabed landlord added.

The Crown Estate aims to offer these project development areas to the market in a competitive tender, which is due to be launched in mid-2023.

Corio Generation, RWE, Magnora and Hiraeth, BlueFloat Energy and Falck Renewables and EDF Renewables and DP Energy have all announced plans to enter the auction.

The Crown Estate also plans to confirm seabed rights for three separate test and demonstration sites – that the Crown Estate believes could support a combined 300MW of floating wind capacity – in the Celtic Sea. The auction regulator will now carry out environmental assessments for the sites, which are due to host projects piloting new foundation and mooring technologies.

It believes the Celtic Sea could eventually host 20GW of floating offshore wind capacity by 2045.