We can announce that we are considering investing in the UK's first wave and tidal stream array projects, in support of our strategy to encourage growth of the emerging industry.
This follows a report last year which found there is potential
for tens of gigawatts of wave and tidal projects around the UK.
We are considering investing up to £20m in total in two wave and
/ or tidal stream projects, alongside other companies and in
parallel with grant support from government. The investment will be
in the construction of the projects, with each project involving
multiple generation devices arranged in an array and with a total
installed capacity of 3 megawatts or greater. To be eligible for
investment, the projects must already have a Crown Estate agreement
for lease, have or soon obtain statutory consents and grid
connection agreements and realistically be expected to reach final
decisions for capital investment by March 2014.
Commenting on the announcement, Rob Hastings, Director of the
Energy and Infrastructure Portfolio, said: "Several wave and tidal
stream technologies are now proven and it is timely for the
industry to move on to demonstration projects. First arrays are
important because they are on the critical path to larger schemes
around the UK and worldwide. By bringing our capital and expertise
to bear, we hope to catalyse investments by others and to see
projects proceed to construction and operation as soon as
possible."
Developers are now invited to make expressions of interest about
investment in their projects to The Crown Estate.
A guidance document, which includes full eligibility criteria,
is available to download here:
First array
investments guidance document (PDF, 460 KB)
The deadline for responses is Friday 15 February 2013.
Any investment will be at The Crown Estate's sole discretion and
while we are keen to identify suitable targets for investment, it
is not necessarily the case that any investment will be made.