On the seabed

How collaboration is creating value

The Marine Data Exchange, established by The Crown Estate in 2013, is now one of the biggest sources of marine data in the world, providing a platform to manage and share offshore survey data collected by our customers throughout the lifetime of their projects. 

Chelsea Bradbury, Marine Data Advisor, reflects on the important role of this resource, in encouraging collaboration, reducing costs, and ultimately de-risking investment offshore.

2017 Marine Aggregates Capability & Portfolio Report

The Crown Estate owns almost all of the sand and gravel resources lying off of the coast of England, Wales and Northern Ireland and we award and manage commercial agreements for companies to extract it.

This document is designed to help planning officers in local authorities understand the contribution that marine aggregates can make, by identifying offshore sources and providing information on supply routes. 

Electricity interconnectors

The development of electricity interconnectors is driven by a market looking for continued integration of power grids with the Continent to facilitate energy trading. Due to their inherent linear nature and requirement to connect to the high-voltage grid, interconnectors pose challenging spatial questions that we work with developers to help address. Simon Goodwin, our Senior Commercial Manager in Minerals & Infrastructure, gives an overview of the industry and the projects we have licensed in the past year.

Seabird behaviour around offshore wind farms

Our economic development can only ever be successful if it is carried out in harmony with the environmental values of the offshore environment. A great example of collaboration to reduce consenting risks for offshore wind projects is the Offshore Renewables Joint Industry Programme (ORJIP), which released results of a multi-annual bird impact study of windfarms. The results are encouraging, and as with all good research, lay a strong basis for continued collaborative research to help shape the windfarms of the future.

2017 Offshore Wind Operational Report

Our 2017 Offshore Wind Operational Report tracks progress in the development of the UK's offshore wind resources over the year, the busiest yet for the sector.

The report builds a picture of a maturing technology, which supplied the electricity needs of 5.3 million homes in 2017 (around 20% of the UK total) and helped reduce the UK's CO2 emissions by 8.6million tonnes.

It is an example of The Crown Estate’s work to collaborate with the offshore wind sector and stakeholders to share data and best practice, helping to unlock value offshore.