Equinor awarded offshore wind lease in UK Celtic Sea
Equinor has been awarded seabed rights off the coast of South Wales and South West England, a new offshore wind area in the UK.
Following the UK’s Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5, conducted by The Crown Estate, Equinor is granted exclusive rights to one project development area, with a capacity of up to 1.5GW. Equinor will pay £350/MW/Annum excl. VAT for a 10-year option period, followed by a 60-year lease.
Commenting on the announcement, Melissa Read, Equinor’s Head of Regional Development UK said:
“The UK is a core strategic market for Equinor. We are glad to be given the opportunity to take forward this site in the Celtic Sea. The seabed lease offers the scalability and timing flexibility we seek and is a long-term option for Equinor’s renewables portfolio. With the areas’ deeper waters, we believe there is future potential for floating wind to play a role in unlocking the UK’s journey towards net zero.”
The Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5 is the first floating-specific leasing round in the UK.
Equinor is a leading operator and developer of floating offshore wind with over 20 years of floating experience. Having developed the world’s first floating turbine (Hywind Demo) in 2009, the world’s first floating offshore wind farm (Hywind Scotland) in 2017 and the world’s largest (Hywind Tampen) which started production in 2022, Equinor now operates nearly half of the world’s floating wind generating capacity.