Plans for the UK to meet its net zero and energy security commitments have received a major boost as six fixed offshore wind projects, with the potential to generate renewable electricity for more than 7 million homes, have been given the green light by the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to […]
Following the biggest ever UK renewables auction, the government said on Thursday the contract price for windfarms was nearly 6% lower than the previous auction, despite the rising cost of materials to build windfarms. A string of new contracts should add about 7 gigawatts of clean power capacity to Britain’s turbine fleet by 2026. The […]
A new paper – entitled Offshore wind farms contribute to epibenthic biodiversity in the North Sea – has been published in the Journal of Sea Research and has received media coverage. According to the lead author, marine ecologist Dr Remment ter Hofstede, and his colleagues, “the North Sea was once abundantly covered with hard substrates […]
Ørsted is partnering with Lincolnshire and Yorkshire Wildlife Trusts to help restore the biodiversity around the Humber Estuary. This flagship project will invest more than £2.5m to restore parts of the Humber on an ambitious scale not seen before, through the planting of 3 hectares (ha) of saltmarsh and 4 ha of seagrass, and the […]
The Crown Estate has announced a net revenue profit of £312.7 million for the financial year 2021/22 Results summary: Net revenue profit: £312.7 million generated for the public purse, which is £43.4 million higher than last year. Total return performance: 12-month total return is 12%, outperforming annual bespoke benchmark of 9.9%. On a three-year rolling basis, it […]
A new international data collation exercise has brought together disparate seabed biodiversity data from across the North Sea into a central data set, helping to drive forward the sustainable expansion of offshore wind and to identify how biodiversity net gain can be delivered in tandem. The North Sea Net Gain study, led by The Crown […]
The Crown Estate has committed a further £25 million into its Offshore Wind Evidence and Change Programme, bringing the total investment intent up to £50 million. There are 23 projects in the current portfolio representing £33milion of funding – £22million from The Crown Estate’s core investment fund, and £11million of co-funding or in-kind contributions. The […]
The cumulative effects of offshore wind on the marine environment alongside other human activities is the focus of a new initiative in the UK. The Ecological Consequences of Offshore Wind (ECOWind) research programme aims to help deliver policy-ready solutions that aim to enable offshore wind and thriving marine ecosystems to coexist and to promote environmental […]