The first turbine for the Round 3 projects is expected to be in the water in 2014.
Round 3 offshore wind projects are divided into nine zones.
The Crown Estate Director Rob Hastings said that the Round 3 leases were aimed at installing up to 25 GW of offshore wind farms in addition to the 8 GW from Rounds 1 and 2 which are now under way.
The Crown Estate Chief Executive Officer Roger Bright said that by 2020 about a third of UK’s electricity was expected to be generated by marine renewable sources, including offshore wind as well as wave and tidal energy like that to be generated by the Pentland Firth project off northern Scotland.
Hastings said that the Pentland Firth development, the first commercial project to harness energy from wave or tide, was likely to deliver 1 GW by 2020.
