Wave and Tidal Projects

As owner of the UK seabed out to the 12 nautical miles territorial sea limit and with rights under the Energy Act 2004 to licence the generation of renewable energy in the Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) on the UK’s continental shelf to 200 nautical miles, The Crown Estate plays an important part in the development of the UK’s renewable energy industry.

We are committed to working with government departments, stakeholders and industry in realising renewable energy targets and successfully exploiting the country’s significant wave and tidal energy resource.

We have been directly involved in the establishment of test site facilities for wave and tidal renewable energy devices in Orkney (European Marine Energy Centre) and Cornwall (Wave Hub), and we encourage developers to investigate the facilities offered at these test sites in respect of their requirements for the testing of devices.

In order that industry may progress with its own timetable for in situ development and testing of devices and technology, we have also drawn up protocols for the provision of lease options for experimental and pre-commercial device deployment at suitable locations, where sound reasons prevail for not being able to utilise existing test facilities.

Details of our protocols are provided on the application process page, and we recommend that developers contact us in the first instance to discuss their proposals.

This information is updated on a regular basis so please visit again to check for any updates.