Floating wind farms could be built off the coast of Cornwall and Pembrokeshire after the manager of the Queen’s estates identified a cluster of sites in the Celtic Sea that could host them.
The Crown Estate, which generates money for the Treasury and the Royal Family, has published five “demand areas” that will be narrowed down to development plots to host wind power generation.
Once the project development areas are agreed, they will be offered to businesses through a tender process due to start in mid-2023.
The Crown Estate hopes these areas will provide 4 gigawatts of floating offshore wind power by 2035, powering almost 4 million homes.
Celtic Sea sites identified as floating wind farm opportunities
Offshore wind farms are usually built on the seabed near the coast. The structures, which can be deployed in the Celtic Sea, allow turbines to be installed on floating concrete and steel platforms that are anchored to the seabed using flexible anchors or cables and sit just above or below the waterline.
The innovation means they can be located in deeper water, creating less opposition from local residents and businesses on the coast who dislike the presence of wind turbines for aesthetic reasons. It also means the structures take advantage of stronger winds and are less likely to conflict with fishing fleets or disrupt bird nesting sites and naval bases.
The crown estate said it had identified search areas by studying a variety of factors, including “navigation routes, fishing activity and environmental sensitivity”. The wind farms will not be visible from land, except from one potential site north of the Isles of Scilly, it said.
At a meeting with stakeholders earlier this year, concerns were raised about whether the floating wind farms would cause problems for the fishing gear of vessels fishing for crab and lobster in the area. There have also been calls to expand the size of buffer zones between farms and nearby boats.
Wind farms could also be co-located with carbon capture and storage schemes or coordinate activities with telecommunications cabling projects, stakeholders said.
Last month, the Crown Estate said a record-breaking auction of offshore wind farm plots had boosted the value of its offshore business by 22% on last year to £5bn.
Apart from its ambitions in the Celtic Sea, the estate has granted licenses for six offshore wind farms off the coast of England and Wales, which could generate up to £9bn over the next 10 years. Successful bidders include Germany’s RWE Renewables and a consortium that includes oil major BP.
Profits for the crown estate jumped by £43.4m to £312.7m in the year to the end of March.
The estate hands over all of its profits to the Treasury before 25% is returned to the royal household in the form of a sovereign grant, a funding formula that is under review by the government. The grant was increased in 2017 from the previous level of 15% to pay for extensive repairs to Buckingham Palace.
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Huub den Rooijen, crown estate’s managing marine director, said: “The Celtic Sea has the potential to become one of the world’s great renewable energy basins, bringing economic growth and abundant clean energy.”
Energy Minister Greg Hands said: “We already have the largest deployment of offshore wind in Europe. Floating technology is key to unlocking the full potential of our coastline.”
Earlier this year, the Crown Estate’s Scottish arm auctioned offshore space for 17 projects, with most of the capacity earmarked for offshore wind. The first floating offshore wind farm has been operating off Scotland since 2017.
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