• About us

  • The Crown Estate is a diverse property business valued at more than £7 billion. We have been trusted to manage a wide range of properties across the UK including commercial and retail properties. In the country, it includes agricultural land, parkland and forestry. It includes shopping centres, business parks, farms and housing. And we have over half the foreshore and almost all of the seabed around the UK.

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    Welcome to The Crown Estate

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• Sustainability
  • • Sustainability
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    • Tackling climate change and energy security
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• Careers

  • We hope you're here because you believe your talents and experience match the exciting opportunities which exist in our unique organisation.

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• Home
• Urban

  • The Crown Estate's urban portfolio comprises a wide and varied mix of properties ranging from modern purpose-built offices, retail and shopping centres to Grade I listed buildings.

    • What we do
    • Our portfolio
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    Estates mapAgents A-ZCase studies

  • 

    Retail

    Prime retail is one of our core sectors.

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• Marine

  • We manage virtually the entire seabed out to the 12 nautical mile territorial limit, as well as around half of the foreshore.

    • What we do
    • Aggregates
    • Aquaculture
    • Cables and pipelines
    • Marine research
    • Marine stewardship fund
    • Metal detecting
    • Minerals potash
    • Moorings and marinas
    • Wildfowling
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    Aggregates

    Our estate includes the rights to explore and utilise the mineral interests of the UK continental shelf.

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• Energy

  • The Crown Estate is a key player in supporting the delivery of a diverse and secure energy supply for the UK.

    • Offshore wind energy
    • Onshore renewables
    • Carbon capture and storage
    • Natural gas storage
    • Wave and tidal
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    Estates mapCase studies

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    Offshore wind energy

    As managers of the seabed out to the 12 nm limit, we play a major role in the development of the offshore wind energy industry in the UK.

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• Rural

  • The rural estate comprises the agricultural, mineral and forestry estates in England, Scotland & Wales, as well as residential and commercial property.

    • What we do
    • Agriculture
    • Development
    • Forestry
    • Minerals
    • New business
    • Rural residential
    • Tourism
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    Estates mapAgents A-ZCase studies

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    Agriculture

    Our agricultural interests include both livestock and arable farming over 106,000 hectares (263,000 acres) across the UK.

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• Windsor

  • The Windsor Estate covers approximately 6,400 hectares and includes Windsor Great Park, the Home Park of Windsor Castle, extensive forests, residential and commercial properties, golf courses, a racecourse and let farms.

    • What we do
    • Parkland
    • Ascot and surrounds
    • Forestry
    • Residential and commercial lettings
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    • Local focus

    Estates mapAgents A-Z

  • 

    The Royal Landscape

    Situated in the southeast corner of Windsor Great Park lies The Royal Landscape, featuring the famous Savill and Valley Gardens.

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• Marine
• What we do
  • Working with us
• Aggregates
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  • Sustainability
• Aquaculture
  • Working with us
• Cables and pipelines
• Marine research
  • Aquaculture research
  • Energy research
  • Seabed and coastal research
  • Socio-economic research
  • Sustainability
• Marine stewardship fund
  • Our projects
  • Case studies in detail
  • Working with us
  • Local focus
• Metal detecting
  • Metal detecting permit application
• Minerals potash
• Moorings and marinas
  • Our portfolio
  • Local focus
  • Working with us
• Wildfowling
• Case studies
• Downloads

Energy research

Energy research

Energy research

The role of research projects related to renewable and other forms of low carbon energy is to examine issues not being fully addressed elsewhere in the many programmes that are active across UK Government departments and Europe. In comparison to such programmes, our research support is a niche but demonstrably beneficial activity. It covers a diverse range of topics including, amongst others: underwater noise; the 'public good' arising from renewables; sustainability issues in the supply chain; capacity factors in the geological storage of carbon dioxide; interactions of seals with offshore wind turbines; and interactions of wildlife with tidal turbines.

A major mechanism in the funding of energy research projects is The Crown Estate's Research Network, which comprises a number of institutions across the UK (currently the universities of St Andrews, Swansea and Durham) which has been put in place to provide a research capability to deliver against our business needs. It is expected that this network will expand, in terms of the number of institutions, and diversify with respect to the number of specialist research areas included within it.

The driving force for these projects is twofold. We aim to reduce uncertainties in the consenting process for new developments, and also to understand much more about the consequences of low carbon energy developments in the marine environment. The breadth of these consequences ranges from those arising from environmental impacts through to the consequences for services, communities and social infrastructure on the adjacent regional land area.

Reports

Reports

Interactions between seals and offshore wind farms (2012)
(PDF 4.5 MB)

Potential impact of no-take zones on benthic habitats (2012)
(PDF 1.6 MB)

Bioluminescence - a source of marine energy? (2012)
(PDF, 1.2 MB)

Use of rare earth metals in offshore windfarms (2011)
(PDF, 1.1 MB)

Products from marine macro-algae (2011)
(PDF, 3.1 MB)

Collation and analysis of offshore wind farm piling records (2011)
(PDF 1.7 MB)

CCS presentation, Coastal Futures (2010)
(PDF 6.8 MB)

Energy extraction executive summary (2006)
(PDF 90 KB)

Energy extraction final report (2006)
(PDF 3.0 MB)

Energy projects

Energy projects

Title	Ongoing/ Complete	Brief description	Main contractor	Co-funders
MSFD Descriptor 11 (Noise) baseline contribution	Ongoing	Collation of offshore wind piling records 2007-2011	ABPmer	N/A
Consequences of reduced fishing effort on biodiversity.	Ongoing	Comparative study of areas where fishing effort has and has not been reduced in recent years - as a proxy for impact of offshore windfarms	SOI Ltd	N/A
Interactions between seals and windfarms	Ongoing	Tagging of seals and analysis of behaviour in the vicinity of offshore windfarms	SOI Ltd	N/A
Carbon dioxide storage capacity in saline formations	Ongoing	Modelling of flow and pressure regimes in saline sandstone storage formations	Durham University	N/A
Interactions between tidal turbines and biota	Ongoing	Modelling of avoidance and interactions of mammals and other biota with tidal turbines	Swansea University	N/A

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