Introduction
On 22 May 2008, The Crown Estate requested initial expressions of interest from companies wishing to be considered for developing commercial scale windfarms within Scottish territorial waters. Following the initial registration process, The Crown Estate invited registered companies to submit project proposals for assessment. By the close of this application process we had received 23 site applications from a total of 14 development companies and consortia.
Following this high level of interest in the development of offshore windfarms in Scottish territorial waters, the Scottish Government announced on 29 October 2008 that they will carry out a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for offshore wind. The SEA will ensure the significant offshore wind resource is developed strategically and the Scottish Government has announced that it will prioritise completion of the process and the SEA is due to be released for consultation early in 2010.
Process & timetable
A call for expressions of interest was made on 22 May 2008 and the closing date for submission of registration details was 23 June 2008. Following this, application packs were sent to all registered companies for completion within a three-month period. The closing date for receipt of applications was 10 October 2008 and applications were then assessed by The Crown Estate and our advisors.
Further calls for interest will be considered in the future.
| Closing date for expressions of interest: | 23 June 2008 |
| Application packs sent to registered companies: | 11 July 2008 |
| Closing date for applications: | 10 October 2008 |
| Assessment of applications: | Oct–November 2008 |
| Applicant interviews: | January 2009 |
| Allocation of exclusive development rights over sites: | 30 January 2009 |
| Announcement of the successful applicants and awarded sites: | 16 February 2009 |
For further information please visit the press release:
Awards
Ten companies and consortia have been awarded exclusive development rights over their chosen sites, allowing the project developers to commence with further site surveys and investigations prior to submitting consent applications. If all of these sites were to be constructed in full, they could provide a potential installed capacity of over 6 GW of offshore wind energy.
For a table of the ten companies and consortia, please follow the link:
 Scottish offshore wind award of exclusivity agreements
PDF (1.5 MB)
Next steps
At this stage, the ten successful project developers have been awarded site exclusivity. This gives them security over their chosen sites and allows them to commence (with the necessary statutory consents) site survey works and instrument deployment which require our permission.
On the 23 January 2009, the Scottish Government formally announced the launch of an SEA for offshore wind and this process is expected to take twelve months to complete. The SEA report is expected to be released for consultation in spring 2010. We will work closely with the Scottish Government throughout this process and the grant of any agreement for lease by ourselves will be subject to a favourable SEA outcome.
A lease which enables the developer to actually go ahead with construction works will only be granted by us once the developer has conducted a site specific environmental impact assessment and obtained statutory consents and permissions from the Scottish Government.
Further information
For further information please email:
 enquiries@thecrownestate.co.uk
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