Wind Energy – Floating Wind
Ocean Winds, the 50-50 joint venture between EDPR and ENGIE, is set to be awarded the rights for a third floating offshore wind site in the Celtic Sea by The Crown Estate.
The news follows the Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5 auction in June, which awarded rights for two of three sites for new floating wind farms to Equinor and Gwynt Glas, who both entered into agreements for lease for their respective floating wind farm projects in October.
Following the auction, The Crown Estate stated that it would ensure the full 4.5GW capacity available through Round 5 was delivered by deploying a third site.
Since then, it has been actively engaging the market to secure a developer for the third site, with Ocean Winds successful following a direct award process in accordance with the Procurement Act 2023.
Ocean Winds is a global leader in floating technology, having delivered the world’s first semi-submersible floating wind farm, WindFloat Atlantic, in Portugal in 2020, and has a proven track record of delivery in the UK including Moray East and Moray West.
They will now join Equinor and Gwynt Glas in progressing the development of some of the largest floating wind farms in the world, with enough total capacity to power more than four million homes.
The Crown Estate took several steps to derisk Round 5 and make the opportunity even more attractive to developers at a time of market challenges. These included agreeing a plan with the National Energy System Operator for connecting the sites to the UK’s energy grid and undertaking a major programme of technical and environmental pre-consent surveys.
As part of the tender process for Round 5, bidders were required to set out plans for creating new onshore benefits from the development of the new wind farms. This included committing to creating new apprenticeships, contributing to at least 3.5% of the workforce, and ensuring that a minimum of 10% of employees aged 19-24 are not currently in education, employment, or training.
Ocean Winds will be subject to the same conditions, with research showing that the full delivery of Round 5 could lead to the creation of more than 5,000 jobs and deliver a £1.4 billion boost to the UK economy.
Ocean Winds will also need to outline which ports it intends to work with to support the final assembly and deployment of the new floating turbines, with Port Talbot and Port of Bristol previously identified as potential locations for this activity.
Ocean Winds and The Crown Estate will now work towards finalising an Agreement for Lease, which is expected to conclude in Spring 2026.
