The Crown Estate can today announce that it has agreed to Celtic Array Ltd’s request to end its offshore wind zone agreement for the Round 3 Irish Sea Zone, allowing developers, DONG Energy and Centrica, to cease development activity and terminate their seabed rights.
Head of Offshore Wind, Huub den Rooijen said : “We have confirmed the developers’ assessment of the zone, which shows that challenging ground conditions make this project economically unviable with current technology.
“We understand that this will be disappointing for many but improvements and de-risking of new technologies may one day in the future make it economic to develop in some parts of the area.
“Whilst we have no plans to re-offer the zone to the market, to improve the understanding of the complex geology in this region we intend to make available the wealth of data from Celtic Array’s activity through our Marine Data Exchange in due course.”
Over the last four years DONG Energy and Centrica have conducted widespread survey work across the whole Irish Sea Zone and more detailed intrusive ground investigation.
The offshore wind sector has made steady and significant progress over the last decade and is on course to deliver 10 per cent of the UK’s electricity demand by the end of the decade, including from projects within the Irish Sea.
The area continues to benefit from substantial wind resource and by spring next year successful wind farms in the Irish Sea will comprise 2,000 MW of capacity in operation following the completion of the Gwynt y Môr and West of Duddon Sands offshore wind farms. With the extensions to the Burbo Bank and Walney offshore wind projects being awarded Government funding contracts earlier this year, there is also the opportunity for additional new capacity of 918 MW.