UK: South West Welcomes Crown Estate’s Invitation for Future Leasing

The South West marine energy industry has welcomed the announcement by the Crown Estate that it is to begin an industry engagement exercise to chart future development plans for wave and tidal energy around the coast of the UK, including the South West of England.

Speaking on behalf of the South West Marine Energy Park (MEP), Johnny Gowdy said: “We have been engaged in very constructive discussions with the Crown Estate for some months, looking at the resource potential of the South West, and we are very keen to ensure that the region features prominently in the Crown Estate’s future development plans.”

The last study of offshore energy resources in the South West was completed in 2010, and identified a potential 2,400 MW of wave and tidal stream energy which could be developed in the period up to 2030. The principle areas of development are likely to be off the North Cornwall coast, Isles of Scilly and south of the Lizard peninsula for wave energy, while tidal energy resources are concentrated off the North Devon/Somerset coast in the Bristol Channel and a number of smaller sites in the English Channel.

Johnny Gowdy added: “We do not expect to see large scale projects in the South West until later in the decade, but there are significant opportunities for smaller projects of 10-30MW to be deployed quite quickly taking advantage of facilities at the Wave Hub, and our relatively good port infrastructure, supply chain and grid connectivity. We hope the industry engagement exercise which the Crown Estate has launched will tease out exactly where these opportunities lie and how quickly they can be developed.”

 South West MEP board member and Wave Hub general manager Claire Gibson said: “This is an important initiative to gather industry views, and we will be working closely with our industry colleagues to help the Crown Estate produce what we hope will be a very clear and credible development plan for the sector.”

The industry engagement takes the form of a questionnaire, which is available from the Crown Estate website with responses due back by 21st September. While the engagement exercise is aimed principally at the industry, it is also open to other organisations with an interest in marine energy to contribute.

Today’s announcement by the Crown Estate follows the news reported yesterday that the Government has confirmed the increase in the market incentives for new wave and tidal technologies, for projects less than 30 MW installed before spring 2017, bringing the South West up to the same level of support previously enjoyed by Scotland.

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Offshore WIND staff, July 26, 2012; Image: wavehub