Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on November 19, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleOcean Winds, a joint venture of EDP and Engie, secures rights to develop a 1.5 GW floating wind farm in the Celtic Sea, supporting UK's renewable goals.
By Susanna Twidale
LONDON (Reuters) -Ocean Winds, a joint venture between Portugal's EDP Renewables and France's Engie, has won seabed lease rights to build a 1.5 gigawatt floating wind farm in the Celtic Sea off the coast of Wales and South West England, Britain's Crown Estate said on Wednesday.
Britain is aiming to largely decarbonise its electricity sector by 2030 to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and drive down cost, and is seeking to increase offshore wind capacity to 43-50 gigawatts (GW) by the end of the decade, from around 16 GW at present.
“Floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea will drive growth across Wales and the South West, create thousands of skilled jobs in places like Port Talbot and Bristol, bolster our energy security, and power industrial renewal,” Britain’s energy secretary Ed Miliband said in a statement.
Ocean Winds will pay 350 pounds ($468.55) per megawatt per year for the lease, Crown Estate said, meaning it will pay 525,000 pounds per year for the sites, excluding VAT.
The lease is the third offered at the site, with Equinor and Gwynt Glas, a joint venture between EDF Renewables UK and ESB, awarded leases earlier this year.
The three projects combined could generate enough electricity to power four million homes and create over 5,000 jobs, the Crown Estate said.
Floating wind projects can be installed in deeper waters than fixed-bottom foundations, harnessing stronger and more continuous wind to generate more power.
The Crown Estate is an independently run commercial business whose profits go to the Treasury and are used as the benchmark for the level of public funding for the royal family.
(Reporting by Susanna TwidaleEditing by Peter Graff)
A floating wind farm consists of wind turbines mounted on floating platforms, allowing them to be placed in deeper waters where winds are stronger and more consistent.
Decarbonisation refers to the process of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, particularly in energy production, to combat climate change and promote sustainability.
Offshore wind capacity refers to the total amount of electricity that can be generated by wind turbines located in bodies of water, contributing to renewable energy goals.
Seabed lease rights are legal permissions granted to companies to use specific areas of the seabed for projects such as wind farms, typically involving financial agreements.
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