Centrica, the parent company of British Gas, today welcomed the news that it has been successful in The Crown Estate's Round Three offshore wind tendering process, having been awarded exclusive rights to develop the Irish Sea zone.

The zone, which is located 15 kilometres off the coast of Anglesey, Wales, and 2,200km2, provides Centrica the potential to develop up to an additional 4.2 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy. It could provide enough power for over three million British Gas homes.

The Irish Sea zone was Centrica's preferred location due to a combination of its close proximity to the shore, relative water depth and grid connections. It will provide valuable diversity by being on the west coast, away from the majority of other planned UK wind farms, giving access to a different wind regime, at a different time to the majority of other sites. Through its gas developments in the Irish Sea and the Barrow offshore wind farm, Centrica already has experience of working in the area. The zone encompasses a significant volume of projects, and will provide the stimulus for new hubs of offshore wind deployment and support services in the area.


Having been successful in previous licensing rounds for offshore wind Centrica has already built and refinanced the Lynn and Inner Dowsing wind farms on the east coast, and expects to commence construction at the 270 megawatt (MW) Lincs offshore wind farm development later this year. Docking Shoal and Race Bank, Centrica's two other Round Two wind farm proposals, which are awaiting consent, could add a further 1.1GW - enough to power 760,000 homes.

Sarwjit Sambhi, Managing Director of Power Generation at Centrica, said: "The UK has bold carbon reduction targets and we need to take bold actions to achieve them. Developing in the Irish Sea zone could dramatically increase our renewable energy output, but offshore wind is expensive to build and we will need a long-term, stable support mechanism to make these investments commercially viable for the foreseeable future.

"Round Three should send a strong signal to the renewables supply chain in the UK and a suitable support mechanism would incentivise its creation to increase competition, reducing costs and creating thousands of new jobs."

(CD/BMcC)