Round One – The Emergence of a New Industry
In December 2000 the development of the offshore wind industry took a major step forward when The Crown Estate launched the first round of site awards in UK territorial waters. In April 2001, eighteen companies pre-qualified for site development options under The Crown Estate procedures and to date fifteen projects have gained all the necessary statutory consents to enable construction and operation. In February 2002 the Energy Minister for DETI(NI) asked The Crown Estate to make available a site off the north coast of Northern Ireland for up to sixty turbines. Also in 2002 the DTI requested The Crown Estate to make available a site for a novel co-generation project off Barrow in the north west. The Ormonde project will derive energy from both wind and gas reserves.
Round one was intended to act as a ‘demonstration’ round, enabling prospective developers to gain technological, economic and environmental expertise. The Crown Estate's procedures limited the area of seabed to be developed to 10 km², a maximum of thirty turbines to generate a minimum installed capacity of 20 MW. (Only the Northern Ireland site will have a maximum area of 20 km²).
Site Selection
The Crown Estate did not determine round one locations which were put forward by potential developers on the basis of a range of relevant factors including water depth, wind resource and grid connection. Areas of high nature conservation value were avoided as well as areas of seabed where existing activities and uses are potentially incompatible with offshore windfarm development. The present technology is limited by the depth at which foundations can be placed, whilst the cost of grid connection is a vital consideration. As a result, all the proposed round one windfarm sites are in water depths of less than 20 m, and no further than 12 kms offshore. For a map of round one and round two sites please follow the link below.
Round Two & The Role of SEA – The Opportunity for Expansion
In 2002 DTI’s consultation paper 'Future Offshore', set out the Government’s policy direction and commitment to take a more strategic approach to offshore windfarm development. It set out the intention to restrict further development to strategic areas and undertake a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) prior to the implementation of the SEA Directive. It proposed three strategic areas for development: the Greater Wash, the Thames Estuary and the North West (Liverpool Bay).
DTI commissioned an SEA covering these three areas. The SEA was completed in May 2003 and following consultation DTI requested that The Crown Estate make available seabed areas in these strategic regions for the purposes of further windfarm development. Based on the conclusion of the SEA, DTI issued guidance including a precautionary coastal exclusion zone of between 8-13 km from the coast to reduce the visual impact of development and avoid sensitive, shallow water feeding areas for certain species of sea duck. The SEA set out development scenarios limiting the total development possible within these three areas to between 4 and 7.5 GW (including the contribution from round one).
In July 2003 we announced a competitive tender process for round two sites. The tender closed on 15 October 2003; 41 projects amounting to 27 GW of installed capacity were received. In December 2003 The Crown Estate announced the successful developers and projects. The fifteen successful projects awarded Crown Estate Agreements for Lease amount to 7.2 GW and include sites within and beyond territorial waters. The potential output from the combined round one and round two sites far exceeds the scenarios set out by government for electricity generation from the developments.
Relocation and Site Adjustment
Round two developers facing insurmountable obstacles at their original site were given the opportunity to apply to relocate their project. It was agreed through high level consultation that four projects faced robust justification for relocation. Alternative sites have been agreed for the Westermost Rough and Greater Gabbard projects. However, applications from Triton Knoll and Dudgeon East cannot be progressed at present as it would not be appropriate to compromise the development of other projects in the Greater Wash.
The Crown Estate has also given developers flexibility to adjust the boundaries of their projects by up to forty percent in order to optimise their developments and overcome issues that may have been identified since the project was awarded through site investigation and stakeholder consultation.
For the most up-to-date, complete set of round two co-ordinates please visit the offshore windfarms table of our estate maps.
Round Two Procedural Changes
A review of round two site consent and development progress, particularly in the Wash strategic area, has highlighted a number of outstanding issues which are causing delay to the programme. We have therefore proposed amendments to the round two procedures in order to help resolve some of these issues and maximise the opportunity presented by round two.
Please visit the Round Two Procedural Changes page for proposed changes to our procedures in order to address outstanding round two development issues.
The Future
Round two is definitely more ambitious in scale and will rely on state of the art technology that could contribute electricity for more than four million households, placing the UK at the global forefront of offshore wind development. It will also make a real contribution to reducing our emissions of greenhouse gases and securing our domestic energy supply.
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