The Crown Estate (TCE) announced that it has signed Agreements for Lease for six offshore wind projects which could begin to generate around 8GW of green electricity by 2030, enough for more than seven million homes. Three of the six projects are located off the North Wales, Cumbria and Lancashire coast, and three are […]
Researchers have provided a first estimate of the effect of offshore wind farms on sedimentary organic carbon stocks in the Southern North Sea. A new peer-reviewed paper published in Frontiers in Marine Science has provided the first assessment of the net impact of offshore windfarms (OWFs) on sediment organic carbon (OC) stocks over the entire […]
UK Energy Secretary Grant Shapps has outlined a package of measures aimed at speeding up the offshore wind consenting process whilst also protecting the marine environment. He has proposed a total of five actions as part of a policy statement on its offshore wind environmental improvement package. The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy […]
The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan, has issued Maritime Area Consents (MACs) to the first phase of seven offshore renewable energy projects, in what represents a significant milestone in the delivery of offshore wind in Ireland. The news release from government said: ‘The award of MACs ensures that only projects with the greatest […]
The Crown Estate has announced its first major investment in surveys to support the proposal to unlock valuable new clean energy capacity through floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea. By investing in these surveys at an early stage and making the data freely available to successful bidders, The Crown Estate is aiming to accelerate […]
The expansion of offshore wind farms in the North Sea is making progress. But the consequences for the marine environment they are built in have not yet been fully researched. Scientists at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon have already provided valuable insights into the effects of wind farms in past studies. In their latest publication, […]
Crown Estate Scotland has confirmed that all three successful ScotWind Clearing applicants now have seabed option agreements in place meaning that their projects can move into the development stage. Full seabed leases are granted at a later stage once applicants have the necessary consents from regulators, such as Marine Scotland, and have secured grid connections and financing. […]
A cross-party group of MPs has called for a tripling of the floating offshore wind target, from 5GW by 2030 to 15GW by 2035, a restoration of 30 per cent of UK saltmarshes and seagrass meadows by 2030, and greater ambitious for nature restoration targets. The ten point plan for climate and nature […]