Queen’s Property Managers Grant Leases for Floating Windfarm Off Wales

The Crown Estate, which manages the Queen’s properties, has green-lit the UK’s first floating offshore windfarm.

The windfarm will be built off the coast of Wales, as the wind industry in the UK looks to harness energy from the Celtic Sea.

Two new leases were granted by the Crown Estate. This included the seabed rights for a project that requires the installation of floating wind turbines almost 30 miles offshore.

One floating windfarm is already under construction in Scotland, with another one in the planning stages, but the 96MW Erebus project could become one of Britain’s first floating windfarms.

Erebus will be developed by ‘Blue Gem Wind’ - a joint venture between Simply Blue Energy, the renewable energy developer, and Total, the French oil company.

The rights to the seabeds around the British Isles are held by the Crown Estate. The Queen’s property managers also gave the go-ahead for an extension to the Gwynt y Môr offshore windfarm in north Wales.

The extension will span 10,600 hectares and could help Wales meet climate targets by providing up to 576MW of power.

The environment minister in the Welsh government, Lesley Griffiths, welcomed the ‘next step in harnessing the potential for energy’ in Welsh waters.

“The climate emergency means we will need much more renewable energy to meet our needs, and the Welsh government has supported the development of marine energy for many years,” Griffith said.

The industry trade body, RenewableUK, estimates some 17,000 jobs to be created by the floating offshore wind industry. There is also the potential to export the technology and skills to other countries with similar coastal waters.

Director at Blue Gem Wind, Hugh Kelly, said that being granted the lease for the project would help pave the way for other projects which could ‘unlock the significant potential of floating wind in the Celtic Sea’.

RenewableUK’s Luke Clark said that with government support, they were confident that 2000MW worth of floating windfarms could be built along Britain’s coastline by 2030.

“To reach net zero emissions we need to see a massive expansion of floating wind all around the UK, including Wales,” said Clark. “Building a world-leading UK supply chain for floating wind will create new opportunities to export our expertise to emerging markets with deep-water coastlines, including China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and the US.”