A seabed for future generations

It’s just a few short months since we marked a quarter of a century of offshore wind in the UK, celebrating its incredible growth and contribution to our national life. 

As our focus now turns to the next chapter of this remarkable story, it comes at a time when international energy markets are in the spotlight more than ever. 

However, at The Crown Estate, we know the decisions we take today aren’t just important for responding to current challenges, but are a vital opportunity to lay the foundations for future generations. 

A resource fit for the future 

The UK is home to one of the leading markets for offshore renewables anywhere in the world. But as pressure on this space mounts alongside increasing global competition and a changing climate, we’ve needed to look again at how we manage this vital resource. 

That is why we have developed the Marine Delivery Routemap – a new, strategic approach to managing the seabed that allows us to look across multiple uses, decades into the future, and to make better, more joined up decisions about how this national asset is used. 

And with the UK home to globally important natural habitats, it is also helping ensure nature’s interests are considered alongside other vital sectors when making future decisions. 

By bringing together world-class spatial mapping, digital capability and a shared evidence base, we’re able to work with stakeholders to better understand where future energy generation, infrastructure, nature projects and investment could be best located, and how different uses interact with one another. 

Round 6 - new opportunities for growth and investment 

Routemap has been the result of many months of hard work and collaboration, and we’re excited to be able to put it to work for the first time through our plans for a new leasing round for offshore wind. 

Known as Round 6, this new opportunity will see around 6GW of new capacity brought to market off the coast of the North East of England, with the potential to support around 10,000 jobs, creating upwards of £12 billion of economic value and strengthening supply chains both regionally and nationally. 

This will be the first such leasing round underpinned by the Routemap, ensuring that decisions about where and how we lease the seabed are made in the context of wider system needs, environmental considerations and long-term plans. 

Routemap in action 

In practice, this means Routemap has enabled us to do things differently: helping us identify optimal areas of seabed to present a series of offshore wind opportunities with clear visibility of how they interact with other marine sectors, nature and surrounding onshore infrastructure. This makes for better planning across the whole energy system and offers important clarity for developers and other seabed users alike. It also demonstrates our strategic partnership with the National Energy System Operator in action. By aligning this leasing round with their work to evolve the UK’s energy system, we are helping ensure offshore wind development is planned as part of a wider, integrated energy landscape rather than in isolation. 

Creating new onshore benefits 

A thriving marine economy has the potential to unlock enormous benefits for onshore communities, through countless opportunities for new jobs, skills and regeneration.  

That is why we’ve also designed Routemap to help join the dots between the future uses of the seabed and the diverse opportunities this can create for attracting investment into the onshore supply chain. In turn this is supporting earlier, more meaningful conversations with regional leaders about how they can support – and benefit from – the UK’s energy transition. These are discussions which will be crucial as we continue the process of refining the design of this new leasing round over the coming months. 

Looking to the future 

Our ability to take a longterm view is a core strength of The Crown Estate. Through Routemap’s view of seabed use out to 2050, we can not only bring forward the next chapter of the UK’s offshore wind story with enhanced confidence, but also begin to shape the chapters that follow. By identifying areas that could host future leasing rounds, we can provide greater visibility to markets and investors. 

The approach we are taking to this leasing round is just the beginning. We want the Marine Delivery Routemap to become a shared platform, supporting deeper collaboration and better coordination across all those with an interest in how the seabed is used, now and in the future. 

 Gus Jaspert 

Managing Director, Marine, The Crown Estate