Crown Estate changes tender plans for offshore wind auction
By Caoimhe Toman
Date: Friday 19 Jul 2019
(Sharecast News) - The Crown Estate has backtracked on its original plans to demand sealed bids for the UK's biggest offshore wind tender in 10 years .
The Crown Estate, which manages Queen Elizabeth's property portfolio, holds rights to the seabeds around the country. It said it had "refined" plans for the new tender which renewable firms had said would lead to rising prices through higher costs.
Changes include making the tender process more transparent by using daily bidding cycles and scrapping the hefty upfront payment in favour of annual payments over at least three years.
The alterations will be presented to 100 offshore wind representatives in Central London and will be enacted later this year. The next offshore wind licencing round will make up to 7 gigawatts (GW) of seabed rights available.
Jonny Boston, business development manager at The Crown Estate, said: "Building on continued market and government appetite, we have been working closely with industry and stakeholders over many months, listening to their feedback to help inform the design of Leasing Round 4.
"Our goal has been to design a process that is attractive, accessible and fair, supports the sustainable development of the seabed and ultimately delivers a robust pipeline of new projects that will help the UK's transition to a low carbon economy.
"Today's update confirms the tender design for Round 4, giving developers as much information as possible, to inform their planning ahead of launch later this year."
Head of policy and regulation at industry body RenewableUK Barnaby Wharton said: "It's crucial that leasing for new offshore wind sites supports the right level of ambition to meet our net zero emissions target, while ensuring value for consumers."
"By moving to multiple bidding rounds for new offshore wind sites, The Crown Estate has recognised a more transparent process is needed to avoid adding unnecessary costs.
"That is welcome and should be the principle which guides The Crown Estate in implementing this new leasing process".
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