There have been three rounds of leasing for offshore windfarms carried out by The Crown Estate (CE) who are the landlord of the seabed.
The CE owns the majority of the seabed, out to the 12-nautical-mile limit of territorial waters. Offshore renewable development on The CE’s marine estate can only take place if The CE grants a lease over the site in question.
Beyond this limit, in the Renewable Energy Zone, The CE issues a licence to develop a renewable energy installation, rather than a lease.
In June 2008, The CE launched Round 3 of offshore wind leasing in UK waters.
The CE leasing programme is designed to help speed up offshore wind farm projects, with quicker consenting decisions and, ultimately, more wind farms generating renewable electricity, more quickly. It is hoped the earliest projects will start being built from 2015 onwards.
Round 1
In April 2001 the Crown Estate awarded 18 companies agreements for leases totalling about 1GW in the first round of offshore wind farm sites on the UK seabed.
Details of the successful Round 1 applicants and the offshore wind sites are available from The Crown Estate (CE): Rounds 1 & 2 web page.
Round 2
Building on Round 1, in July 2003 the previous Government asked The Crown Estate to invite developers to bid for site option agreements in the second offshore wind farm round.
Arrangements for Round 2 were designed to support development in three strategic areas in territorial waters and in the Renewable Energy Zone – on a much more ambitious scale than in Round 1.
Bids for site options were assessed against a range of criteria, including financial standing, offshore development expertise and wind turbine expertise, and against the constraints set by the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). On 18 December 2003, The Crown Estate offered 12 companies/consortia options for 15 site Agreements for Lease spread across each of the three strategic areas.
Details are available from The Crown Estate: Rounds 1 & 2 web page.
Developers were strongly advised to take into account the advice given in the SEA Environmental Report, including the possible impact on fishing, navigation and other users of the sea. They were also informed of the need for consents from the relevant statutory consenting authorities before these projects could proceed.
Rounds 1 and 2 extensions
In May 2010, The Crown Estate announced an additional 2 GW of capacity from the offshore wind Round 1 and 2 project extensions.
Five sites were selected for extension, creating a potencial additional 1.7 GW.
The following projects were awarded an extension of project area within which the new capacity will be constructed.
| Original project name |
Extension project name |
Capacity |
| Greater Gabbard |
Galloper Wind Farm |
504 MW |
| Kentish Flats |
Kentish Flats 2 |
51MW |
| Thanet |
Thanet 2 |
147MW |
| Burbo Bank |
Burbo Bank Extension |
234 MW |
| Walney |
Walney Extension |
750 MW |
You can find out more on associated Crown Estate press release.
Round 3
The Crown Estate announced the winners of the Round 3 process on 8 January 2010. The successful companies had been chosen following an extensive competitive bidding and negotiation process that began in June 2008. The announcement has the potential to see an additional 32GW of clean electricity feeding into the UK grid, on top of 8GW planned from previous rounds.
You can find further information about the site leasing arrangements for Round 3 of offshore wind farms on The Crown Estate: Round 3 webpage.
Scottish territorial waters (STW)
In January 2009 The Crown Estate offered exclusivity agreements to companies and consortia for 10 sites for the development of offshore windfarms within Scottish territorial waters. The agreements were to develop sites with the potential to generate more than 6 GW of offshore wind power.
You can find out more on The Crown Estate: Windfarms in Scottish waters web page.