The UK’s Crown Estate has officially opened the Offshore Wind Leasing Round 4, to develop new offshore wind capacity, with the issuance of the pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ).
The Offshore Wind Leasing Round 4 is expected to see a potential for leasing out a minimum of 7GW of new seabed rights for offshore wind development in the waters around England and Wales.
PQQ marks the first stage of Round 4 leasing process
The first stage of the Round 4 leasing process, the PQQ will assess the capability of bidders to deliver an offshore wind project, based on a set of financial, legal and technical criteria.
The Crown Estate business development manager Jonny Boston said: “We are delighted to be issuing the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire for Leasing Round 4. After over 18 months of preparation, the formal tender process is now officially open, marking a significant moment for the UK offshore wind market.
“Now the process begins in earnest to identify the next generation of offshore wind developments that will support the UK’s clean energy future out to 2030 and beyond.”
The PQQ, which will run until January 2020, will be followed by stage one of an invitation to tender between February and June 2020. The second stage is scheduled in September 20202.
As the manager of the seabed across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, The Crown Estate will divide the seabed into four regions and make it feasible for the developers to bid for the project sites.
The four bidding areas available to the market in Round 4 include Dogger Bank, Eastern Regions, South East, and Northern Wales and the Irish Sea.
With water depths out to 60m, developers in the Round 4 will be allowed to install a capacity of no more than 3.5GW within one area, which will help the authority to balance new capacity across the country.
Earlier, The Crown Estate said it will encourage participants of Round 4 to include technological innovations within their projects and provide an option to propose hybrid projects.
The successful bidders will be granted 60-year seabed permits, with the permits planned to be awarded in 2021 at the earliest. The first of the new sites are planned to commence production in the late 2020s.
The country aims to have more than 30GW of installed offshore capacity by 2030.
