Existing licences
The Crown Estate announced the first round of UK offshore windfarm development in December 2000. The response from potential developers was enthusiastic. In April 2001, 18 companies successfully pre-qualified for site development options and to date four windfarms have been built: Barrow off the South Cumbrian coast, North Hoyle off north Wales, Scroby Sands off Great Yarmouth, Burbo Bank in Liverpool Bay and Kentish Flats in the Thames Estuary region, all of which are generating renewable energy. There are a number of others either under construction or planned for the near future.
Following the success of this first round and further development of Government policy, the Department of Trade Industry (now Department of Business, Enterprise, and regulatory Reform) requested The Crown Estate to announce a competitive tender process for a second round of larger sites in 2003.
The DTI announced on 18th December 2003 plans for the development of 15 new offshore windfarm sites around the UK coastline. The sites will be built in three strategic areas of shallow sea: the Thames Estuary, Greater Wash, and the North West.
Details of the sites, together with the developers chosen to build them, were also announced by The Crown Estate, which leases the seabed around the UK. Developers are now working up detailed proposals together with supporting environmental statements as a basis for their applications for consent to construct.
These wind farms - which are expected to be producing electricity by the end of the decade - will provide between 5.4 and 7.2 Gigawatts (GW) of generating capacity - enough electricity for more than one in six UK households.