The UK’s Crown Estate has launched its Celtic Sea Floating Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5 to award seabed rights for the development of three commercial-scale floating wind projects, located off the coast of southern Wales and south-western England, each with a maximum potential capacity of 1.5 GW. The leasing round consists in the filling of a Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) that should be followed with a two-stage formal Invitation to Tender sent to preferred bidders by March 2025, with the first commercial-scale floaters expected to hit the water by the mid-2030s.
In December 2023, the Crown Estate unveiled the bidding guidelines for the UK's fifth auction (Round 5), which will involve large-scale floating offshore wind for the first time, and an Information Memorandum that includes details of a series of contractual commitments for developers to create positive social and environmental impacts.
The UK plans to reach 50 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 (13.8 GW as of end-2022), including 5 GW of floating wind.
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