The UK’s Crown Estate has selected Norway’s Equinor and Gwynt Glas, a joint venture between EDF Renewables UK and ESB, as preferred bidders in the seabed leasing round for 3 GW of floating offshore wind projects in the Celtic Sea off Wales (United Kingdom). Each of the two developers was awarded 1.5 GW of capacity in their respective project development area for an annual fee of GBP350/MW (€410/MW).
The Crown Estate originally launched the Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5 in February 2024, offering three areas off the coasts of Wales and southwestern England for a total of up to 4.5 GW of installed capacity. The Crown Estate said it would ensure the delivery of the full potential capacity through the deployment of the third 1.5 GW site, expecting to set out the next steps by the end of September 2025.
The United Kingdom aims to reach 50 GW of installed offshore wind capacity by 2030.
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