EDP and Engie's Ocean Winds win rights to develop Celtic Sea floating wind farm

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)