UK offshore wind capacity receives a royal boost

BRITAIN’S offshore wind farms are about to get bigger after the Crown Estate ruled that seven sites could comfortably expand their operations without posing any threat to the environment.

The expansion will add 2.85GW to the UK’S wind farm capacity, equating to an extra 10pc.

The Crown Estate is made up of land and holdings across England, Wales and Northern Ireland that belong to the Queen.

The collection is part of the sovereign’s “public estate” so the monarch is not involved in the day-to-day management of the land and has only limited control.

The estate works closely with industries and the Government to evaluate investment opportunities up to 12 nautical miles off the coast. In February 2017, it invited existing wind farms to apply for project extensions. It received eight submissions by May 2018, all of which met the specified criteria.

Yesterday, it said seven of those applications would go to the next stage of the leasing process, following a lengthy assessment of how the extensions might affect nature conservation sites.

The successful projects include Sheringham Shoal, Dudgeon, Greater Gabbard, Galloper, Rampion, Gwynt y Môr and Thanet. Developers include energy giants SSE, RWE, E. On and Equinor.

The eighth site, Race Bank, 17 miles north of Norfolk’s Blakeney Point, will not go ahead because the majority of the proposed extension sits within a Special Area of Conservation.

Before reaching the planning stage, the seven sites will carry out further environmental surveys.