Rights awarded for third floating windfarm in the Celtic Sea

The news follows Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5 auction in June 2025, which awarded rights for two of three sites for new floating windfarms to Equinor and Gwynt Glas, who both entered into agreements for leases for their respective floating wind farm projects in October. 

Following the auction, The Crown Estate said it would ensure the delivery of the full potential capacity of up to 4.5 GW available through Round 5 through deployment of a third site. Since then, it has been actively engaging the market to secure a developer for the third site, with Ocean Winds successful following a direct award process in accordance with the Procurement Act 2023. 

Ocean Winds will now join Equinor and Gwynt Glas in progressing the development of some of the largest floating windfarms in the world, with enough total capacity to power more than 4M homes. Ocean Winds and The Crown Estate will now work towards finalising an Agreement for Lease, which is expected to conclude Q2 2026. 

As part of the tender process for Round 5, bidders were required to set out plans for creating new onshore benefits from the development of the new windfarms. This included committing to creating new apprenticeships, contributing to at least 3.5% of the workforce, and ensuring that a minimum of 10% of employees aged 19-24 are not currently in education, employment or training. Ocean Winds will be subject to the same conditions, with research showing that the full delivery of Round 5 could lead to the creation of more than 5,000 jobs and deliver a £1.4Bn (US$1.8Bn) boost to the UK economy. Ocean Winds will also need to outline which ports it intends to work with to support the final assembly and deployment of the new floating turbines, with Port Talbot and Port of Bristol previously identified as potential locations for this activity. 

Crown Estate chief executive Dan Labbad said, “We have delivered on the commitment we made to secure a developer for the third site in the Celtic Sea, and are delighted that Ocean Winds will join other world-leading companies to invest in the UK and help establish this pioneering new technology for the long-term benefit of the country.” 

Ocean Winds chief executive Craig Windram said the company has more than a decade of experience pioneering floating wind technology and is confident in its capabilities to deliver the project.” 

UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said, “Securing a third floating offshore wind site in the Celtic Sea not only strengthens the UK’s position as a global leader in this emerging technology, but also further unlocks the region’s vast potential to deliver our clean power mission and bring down energy bills for good. 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.” 

Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning Rebecca Evans said the announcement “is a huge vote of confidence in the Celtic Sea and the floating offshore wind sector.”

Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5 was designed to lead to the creation of new floating windfarms in three Project Development Areas in the Celtic Sea. Recognising that Round 5 will be one of the first times this new technology has been deployed at a commercial scale in a new area, The Crown Estate has taken a number of important steps to help overcome some of the risks faced by developers, in turn helping speed up the deployment of new floating offshore wind. 

These steps include forming a strategic partnership with NESO to make Round 5 the first offshore wind leasing round to come to market with an agreed design for connecting the new windfarms to the UK energy grid; investing upfront in a multi-million pound programme of technical and environmental marine surveys around the planned windfarm sites; and carrying out Plan-Level Habitats Regulations Assessment early in the process to ensure potential impacts on nature are considered alongside spatial design. “By completing this ahead of the auction round, bidders have been able to bid with increased confidence,” The Crown Estate said.