Ensuring that a floating wind build-out happens sooner rather than later remains a priority for everyone in the sector, but delays are beginning to cause investor uncertainty.
Let’s not forget potential investors in the Celtic Sea ‘project’ are significant players with global ambitions outside of UK waters, and at a time when the US has announced its ambition to lead the world in Floating offshore wind with funding we can only dream about.
An important update meeting with Celtic Sea developers on May 4th was delayed with the Crown Estate sighting ‘UK Gov working to resolve spatial issues’. The rumour mill as to what this might be is currently doing the rounds within the developer communities. A new update seminar has been pencilled in for July 4.
This follows a previous delay around The Holistic Network Design (HND), another essential component in the long-term planning necessity in the Celtic Sea.
The UK and Wales is in danger of missing out if progress and indeed investor confidence doesn’t increase over the coming months. There are a lot of positive conversations in Wales and the SW of England and excitement is rightly gathering momentum, but urgency and a new sense of commercial reality is needed if we are to embrace the long-term opportunity.
The floating Offshore wind progress in other regions of the world is moving much quicker with the US undoubtedly leading the way.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced new investments driving U.S. leadership in floating offshore wind design, development and manufacturing with a clear objective to create thousands of jobs in installation and operations.
Recently, the US Departments of Energy, the Interior, Commerce and Transportation virtually convened offshore wind energy stakeholders to discuss the Floating Offshore Wind Shot, an ambitious initiative to cut the cost of floating offshore wind energy by over 70% by 2035.
As the US strive to lead the way, is this good news for floating offshore wind ambitions in the Celtic Sea? I guess time will tell, starting with a pivotal crown estate developer update scheduled for July 4, ironically US independence day.
The inaugural Floating Offshore Wind Shot Summit on February 22 and 23, 2023.
Day 1
Day 2
