Cherilyn Mackrory, MP for Truro and Falmouth, has welcomed the announcement that the Crown Estate has identified five broad ‘Areas of Search’ for developing floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea.
The development of the first commercial scale floating offshore wind farms in the Celtic Sea will aim to provide power to four million homes by 2035. This marks a significant milestone and provides the foundation to build greater capacity in the future, helping the South West play a crucial part as the UK seeks to achieve its renewable energy targets and drive economic development.
Further stakeholder and market feedback will be used to refine the Areas of Search into smaller project development areas, within which the first generation of commercial-scale floating windfarms could be built. These project development areas will be offered to the market via competitive tender, to be launched in mid-2023.
The Crown Estate said it had identified the areas of search by studying various factors including “navigation routes, fisheries activity and environmental sensitivities”. The windfarms will not be visible from land apart from one potential site north of the Isles of Scilly.
Cherilyn said:
“As a member of the All-Party-Parliamentary-Group for the Celtic Sea, I have worked hard to highlight the opportunities of floating offshore wind in our region.
Floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea presents a significant economic opportunity for the South west, especially given our core strengths in marine technologies, engineering, research and innovation.
I am therefore delighted that the Crown Estate has published these findings which show the Celtic Sea can become one of the great renewable hotpots, bringing economic growth and abundant clean power.
I look forward to supporting this project as it develops and welcoming the APPG for the Celtic Sea to Falmouth later this week to discuss these opportunities further.”
Greg Hands MP, Energy and Climate Change Minister, said:
“We already have the largest offshore wind deployment in Europe. Floating technology is key to unlocking the full potential of our coastline.
“We want to deliver up to 5GW of floating offshore wind by 2030. These projects can help power millions of homes with clean, and cheaper, renewable energy, reducing reliance on expensive fossil fuels.”