The UK government is hoping to accelerate the development of the country’s offshore wind industry by launching the latest round of licensing for coastal sites.
The latest licensing round paves the way for the development of up to 25 GW of new offshore wind capacity – equivalent to one-third of the country’s installed generating capacity – by 2020. The process will be overseen by the Crown Estate, which owns the UK’s coastal seabed and which is planning to invest in the planning phase of offshore developments.
The first two rounds of licensing have been completed and led to 8 GW of projects including the 1000 MW London Array development. Development of offshore wind energy is central to the UK government’s goal of 15 per cent renewable energy by 2020.
“The Government has committed to challenging carbon targets and wind energy is the only renewable technology that can deliver the required quantity by the required timescales,” said Rob Hastings, the Crown Estate’s director of Marine Estates.
In an attempt to speed up wind farm delivery, the Crown Estate says that it will share the cost of obtaining planning consents, including any action needed to address environmental concerns, consenting bottlenecks, supply chain constraints and options for connecting new wind farms to the national grid. Site developers, however, will be wholly responsible for the construction and operation of projects.
“The new approach to the deployment of offshore wind that The Crown Estate have set out today requires us take an important facilitating role in which we will share developer’s risk,” said Hastings. “For the first time we will be investing directly in offshore wind farm development. We will be helping to identify suitable sites and working closely with commercial partners who we expect to make considerable capital investments in offshore wind farm assets.”
The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) called the announcement “fantastic news” and called on the government to speed up the site assessment and approval process.
“There was a lot of scope for cutting the previous timescales for Rounds 1 and 2,” said Maria McCaffery, CEO of BWEA. “If we are going reach the 2020 deadline then we must act on the lessons from the earlier rounds to get rid of excessive assessment burdens on developers and cut the time it takes to get planning permission.”
The government recently made progress in the removal of barriers to wind power expansion by reaching agreement with a number of UK agencies over aviation and radar objections. It has signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly explore technological solutions to the problem of interference of radar signals by wind farms.
“This agreement represents real progress towards removing a barrier to the expansion of wind power, while ensuring air safety and national security,” said Business Secretary John Hutton. “This will lead to faster consenting decisions and help us meet our challenging renewable energy targets.”
“Accelerating the deployment of renewables is crucial in the fight against climate change and will increase the amount of energy the UK produces on its own shores.”
The Crown Estate has identified an initial 11 zones, which it expects to allocate to developers next year. After zone allocation it will work with developers to identify specific sites within the zones.
The allocation process will be based on the Strategic Environmental Assessment currently being carried out by the government. Sites identified for development can expect to receive planning permission by 2013 and become operational by 2015, says BWEA.
The UK government is hoping to accelerate the development of the country’s offshore wind industry by launching the latest round of licensing for coastal sites.
The latest licensing round paves the way for the development of up to 25 GW of new offshore wind capacity – equivalent to one-third of the country’s installed generating capacity – by 2020. The process will be overseen by the Crown Estate, which owns the UK’s coastal seabed and which is planning to invest in the planning phase of offshore developments.
The first two rounds of licensing have been completed and led to 8 GW of projects including the 1000 MW London Array development. Development of offshore wind energy is central to the UK government’s goal of 15 per cent renewable energy by 2020.
“The Government has committed to challenging carbon targets and wind energy is the only renewable technology that can deliver the required quantity by the required timescales,” said Rob Hastings, the Crown Estate’s director of Marine Estates.
In an attempt to speed up wind farm delivery, the Crown Estate says that it will share the cost of obtaining planning consents, including any action needed to address environmental concerns, consenting bottlenecks, supply chain constraints and options for connecting new wind farms to the national grid. Site developers, however, will be wholly responsible for the construction and operation of projects.
“The new approach to the deployment of offshore wind that The Crown Estate have set out today requires us take an important facilitating role in which we will share developer’s risk,” said Hastings. “For the first time we will be investing directly in offshore wind farm development. We will be helping to identify suitable sites and working closely with commercial partners who we expect to make considerable capital investments in offshore wind farm assets.”
The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) called the announcement “fantastic news” and called on the government to speed up the site assessment and approval process.
“There was a lot of scope for cutting the previous timescales for Rounds 1 and 2,” said Maria McCaffery, CEO of BWEA. “If we are going reach the 2020 deadline then we must act on the lessons from the earlier rounds to get rid of excessive assessment burdens on developers and cut the time it takes to get planning permission.”
The government recently made progress in the removal of barriers to wind power expansion by reaching agreement with a number of UK agencies over aviation and radar objections. It has signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly explore technological solutions to the problem of interference of radar signals by wind farms.
“This agreement represents real progress towards removing a barrier to the expansion of wind power, while ensuring air safety and national security,” said Business Secretary John Hutton. “This will lead to faster consenting decisions and help us meet our challenging renewable energy targets.”
“Accelerating the deployment of renewables is crucial in the fight against climate change and will increase the amount of energy the UK produces on its own shores.”
The Crown Estate has identified an initial 11 zones, which it expects to allocate to developers next year. After zone allocation it will work with developers to identify specific sites within the zones.
The allocation process will be based on the Strategic Environmental Assessment currently being carried out by the government. Sites identified for development can expect to receive planning permission by 2013 and become operational by 2015, says BWEA.
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