King Charles III’s Crown Estate, which owns Britain’s seabed, said on Thursday it plans to hold a new offshore wind leasing round in the first half of next year.
The Crown Estate, which comprises tracts of land and most of the country’s seabed, is an independently run, commercial business, whose profit – seen as the benchmark for the level of public funding for the royal family – goes to the UK Treasury.
The next leasing round, which would be the sixth to date, could accommodate a capacity of 6 gigawatts or more, largely in the northeast of England and in water depths suitable for fixed-bottom wind, subject to stakeholder engagement, the Crown Estate said in a statement.
The UK’s offshore wind pipeline is one of the largest in the world, with current capacity of nearly 17 GW and a further 12 GW under construction.
