Offshore Wind Leasing Round 4 officially open

The Crown Estate formally issued the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) for Offshore Wind Leasing Round 4 – the UK’s first major new leasing round in a decade – in October.

Offshore Wind Leasing Round 4 will offer seabed rights for at least 7GW of new offshore wind projects in the waters around England and Wales. The PQQ is now available via The Crown Estate’s eTendering Portal that can be accessed via etendering.thecrownestate.co.uk. The deadline for PQQ submissions is 29 November 2019.

The portal uses a platform provided by Jaggaer One and only applications via the portal will be considered. Details for how potential bidders can access the PQQ are available on The Crown Estate website.

Initial stage

PQQ is the first stage of the Round 4 leasing process and is designed to assess Bidders’ capability to deliver an offshore wind project, based on a set of financial, legal and technical criteria which Bidders must satisfy in order to qualify for the next stage. The PQQ stage runs until January 2020, and will be followed by the stages below; please note that the timings are indicative and the dates for each stage will be confirmed at the start of each stage:

• Invitation to Tender (ITT) Stage One (February 2020 – June 2020);
• Invitation to Tender (ITT) Stage Two (September 2020);
• Plan-Level Habitats Regulations Assessment (Autumn 2020 - Summer 2021); and
• Agreement for Lease (AfL) with successful bidders (Autumn 2021).

Further information about each stage of the of the process is set out in the Round 4 Information Memorandum which can found at www.thecrownestate.co.uk/round4

Next generation

Jonny Boston, Business Development Manager at The Crown Estate, said: “We are delighted to be issuing the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire for Leasing Round 4. After over 18 months of preparation, the formal tender process is now officially open, marking a significant moment for the UK offshore wind market. Now the process begins in earnest to identify the next generation of offshore wind developments that will support the UK’s clean energy future out to 2030 and beyond.”

The RYA regularly monitors the development of seabed areas leased by The Crown Estate in order to assess their potential impact on recreational boating. We meet regularly with developers to discuss recreational navigational safety and respond to national consultations on behalf of recreational boating.

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