UK seabed landlord the Crown Estate is examining whether seven planned UK offshore wind farms could host an extra 4GW of capacity without having an adverse environmental impact.
Since awarding seabed rights for these projects, offshore wind technology has improved, enabling more capacity to be installed in the same seabed area, the Crown Estate explained.
The developers have secured seabed rights for the seven projects, but will still need to apply to install the additional capacity and win permitting approval from the UK government.
CEO of industry body RenewableUK, Dan McGrail, added: "Maximising the amount of offshore wind capacity we can install in areas where leasing agreements are already in place is vital to get us closer to the government's target of 50GW by 2030.”
The planned projects that developers are looking to expand are:
- RWE’s 576MW Awel y Môr project off the coast of north Wales;
- Equinor’s 402MW Dudgeon Extension off the coast of south-east England;
- Equinor’s 317MW Sheringham Shoal Extension off the coast of south-east England;
- RWE and SSE’s 504MW North Falls off the coast of south-east England;
- Macquarie Group, RWE and Siemens Gamesa’s 353MW Five Estuaries off the south coast of England;
- RWE’s 400MW Rampion 2 off the south coast of England;
- And Equinor and SSE’s 1320MW Dogger Bank D off the north-east coast of England.
The Crown Estate would not confirm how much extra capacity each project is looking to add.
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