The Crown Estate last week announced the successful bidders in each of the nine Round 3 offshore wind zones within UK waters who will contribute to a huge boost in wind power capacity for the nation.
Round 3 aims to deliver 32 GW of wind energy capacity, which will be a quarter of the UK’s total electricity needs by 2020. The expansion also has the potential to generate thousands of jobs in the UK.
The successful companies and their contributions are:
1. Moray Offshore Renewables Ltd – 1.3 GW
2. SeaGreen Wind Energy Ltd – 3.5 GW
3. Forewind Consortium – 9 GW
4. Siemens Project Ventures and Mainstream Renewable Power – 4 GW
5. East Anglia Offshore Wind Ltd – 7.2 GW
6. Eon Climate and Renewables UK – 0.6 GW
7. Eneco New Energy – 0.9 GW
8. RWE Npower Renewables – 1.5 GW
9. Centrica Renewable Energy and RES Group – 4.2 GW
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the offshore wind industry is at the heart of the UK economy’s shift to low carbon and could be worth 75 billion pounds and support up to 70,000 jobs by 2020.
Land and property belonging to The Crown Estate is let through almost 10,000 tenancies across the UK; encompassing many of the UK’s cityscapes, ancient forests, farms, parkland, coastline and communities. The Crown Estate is a unique organisation dating back to 1066 and despite centuries of change in law and custom, the underlying ownership of The Crown still exists and there is always a presumption in favour of The Crown unless it can be proved that the land (or waters) within the UK belongs to someone else.
