A sustainable future for offshore wind

The Offshore Wind Sector Deal represents a powerful vision for UK offshore wind, setting it on the path to deliver a significant and growing contribution to our national electricity needs, support the UK’s transition to a clean energy future and unlock opportunities for communities and businesses across the country as part of a flourishing domestic supply chain.

It offers an opportunity to build on the remarkable progress this industry has made since the millennium to prove its ability to deliver reliable, clean electricity, at scale and at low cost.

At The Crown Estate, as managers of the seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland, our focus is on enabling continued sustainable development offshore, working in partnership with industry, government and stakeholders to facilitate a pipeline of projects to 2030 and beyond. Our commitment to making new seabed available to the market through our project extensions and Round 4 is part of this.

In an increasingly busy sea-space, we recognise a collaborative approach will become all the more crucial, ensuring that this ambitious growth happens in balance with the wide range of other interests offshore.

As part of the Sector Deal, Government has committed to work collaboratively with the sector and wider stakeholders to address strategic deployment issues including aviation and radar, onshore and offshore transmission and cumulative environmental impacts, as well as impacts on other users of the sea space, such as navigation and fishing.

In support of this commitment and our own leasing activity, The Crown Estate has undertaken to fund a programme of strategic enabling actions. This will help to advance the evidence base and inform the future use of the sea-space.

This programme is an integral part of our approach to Round 4 which we expect to launch in late Spring. It will be established and delivered in partnership with Government and in collaboration with the devolved administrations, regulators, developers, operators, Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies and non-governmental organisations and is one example of The Crown Estate’s commitment to help secure a sustainable future for the sector.

In this way, The Crown Estate supports the responsible and coordinated expansion of offshore wind, playing our part to unlock the sector’s extraordinary potential.

If you have any comments or questions in the meantime, please get in touch, via offshorestakeholder@thecrownestate.co.uk

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