The Crown Estate identifies Gwynt Glas area of search within its plans to deliver 4 gigawatts of floating wind energy from the Celtic Sea

Gwynt Glas, a DP Energy and EDF Renewables UK joint venture, welcomes the announcement from The Crown Estate identifying five Areas of Search in the Celtic Sea from which 4 GW of floating wind project development sites will be competitively tendered in mid-2023. Today’s announcement confirms that virtually all of the broad Gwynt Glas’  Area of Search is included in The Crown Estates seabed leasing plans for the Celtic Sea. 

Gwynt Glas could provide power for approximately 927,400 homes* and contribute a significant part of the Crown Estate’s ambitions for 4GW of capacity in the Celtic Sea. The Crown Estate has commissioned research that indicates that there is significantly more capacity to come in the future, positioning the UK Celtic Sea as a leading global FLOW market.

Nancy McLean, Gwynt Glas Project Director said “We welcome this announcement. It sends a clear signal to the supply chain and investors that the development of FLOW in the Celtic Sea is progressing at pace and significant scale. Clarity on The Crown Estate’s leasing programme is crucial to meeting net zero targets and maximising the economic and social benefits of this new green industry for the South Wales and South West England regions. We look forward to consulting further with The Crown Estate as they refine Areas of Search into smaller final Project Development Areas, within which proposed windfarms like Gwynt Glas could be sited.“   

Gwynt Glas has been conducting remote aerial surveys for marine mammal and birds since Spring 2021 and has started early-stage consultation with commercial fisheries, and shipping and navigation stakeholders. Following wider stakeholder consultation the floating offshore wind farm site will be refined and finalised to a much smaller area prior to submitting an Application for Lease in 2023.

* Load factors based on the five year rolling averages on unchanged configuration basis using Table 6.5 of 'Digest of UK Energy Statistics' - latest figures as per July 2019 release. Based upon the average domestic electricity consumption per home (temperature corrected) per the Energy Consumption in the UK (published July 2019, Table C9 of ECUK: Consumption data tables).

Notes to editors:
The Crown Estate’s full announcement: Floating offshore wind

About EDF Renewables:
EDF Renewables UK and Ireland is a subsidiary of EDF Group, one of the world’s largest low carbon electricity companies, and our investment and innovation is reducing costs for consumers and bringing significant benefits for communities. 

With our operating portfolio of 38 renewable energy sites including battery, onshore and offshore wind (together totalling 1 GW) we are providing much needed affordable, low carbon electricity. We have an expanding portfolio with almost 5 GW of projects in planning and development, including wind, hydrogen, battery and solar PV. 

About DP Energy:
DP Energy has a long history of renewable project development and is a global developer of wind, solar and ocean energy projects across the UK, Ireland, Australia and North America. 

To date DP Energy has delivered multiple constructed renewable energy projects totalling over 700MW across the countries in which it operates. It has a further 400MW consented and proceeding to the ‘ready to build’ phase and a development pipeline of some 2GW of onshore wind and 4GW+ offshore wind. 

Whilst headquartered in Ireland, DP Energy has operated extensively in the UK since the 1990s and early 2000s to deliver large scale onshore wind projects principally across Scotland, including Hadyard Hill wind farm which at 130MW was one of the largest projects of its day. 

As part of its overall expansion plans DP Energy has now opened a UK South Wales office staffed by an experienced development team and this team, in addition to delivering the Gwynt Glas Offshore Wind farm DP Energy will be developing a portfolio of 100% sustainable energy projects in the UK across the renewable technology range.  

Further information:
Lindsey.Southworth@edf-re.uk Head of External Affairs, EDF Renewables UK, 07813 230 379
Ffion.Wright@dpenergy.com Stakeholder and Communications Manager, DP Energy, 07890 636898