The Crown Estate Secures Future of Inch Cape with GBP 1 Million Investment (UK)

The Crown Estate’s investment of £1 million in the Inch Cape offshore wind site, part of the Scottish Territorial Waters leasing round, has secured the future of the project after the dissolution of the consortium initially awarded the lease.

The £1 million sum has enabled work on the site to continue to plan, and safeguards a key element of the Scottish Territorial Waters project. Inch Cape will deliver around 905 megawatts of offshore wind generation capacity off the Angus Coast, enough to supply power for around 680,000 homes.

The Crown Estate has this week signed an agreement for lease with SeaEnergy Renewables Inch Cape Limited (SERICL) for the development of a wind farm at the Inch Cape site. The agreement for lease grants the exclusive right to develop wind farms on the site subject to obtaining necessary consents.

SERICL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SeaEnergy Renewables Limited (SERL) and (following divestment by SeaEnergy PLC), Repsol Nuevas Energias SA today announced the acquisition of SERL, subject to shareholder approval by SeaEnergy PLC. Following the conclusion of this transaction, it is intended that the Inch Cape site will be developed by a joint venture between Repsol Nuevas Energias SA (Repsol), which will also bring in EDP Renewables as a partner in the project. The companies will continue to work on the preparation of a consent application, including an Environmental Impact Assessment, for submission to Scottish Government.

Gareth Baird, Scottish Commissioner of The Crown Estate said: “This investment demonstrates the critical role played by The Crown Estate in helping drive the Scottish offshore wind industry, in line with one of the Scottish Government’s key objectives. The Crown Estate’s structure and diverse UK portfolio makes this investment possible and has enabled a Scottish based developer to attract investment into the Scottish economy from two international developers.”

Joel Staadecker, CEO of SERL said: “Inch Cape is a tremendously well situated site with great wind resource potential, and thanks to The Crown Estate we have been able to continue to progress the project without any delay. The new joint venture between Repsol and EDP Renewables will now allow us to bring this important part of Scotland’s offshore wind portfolio online.”

The Inch Cape site was originally awarded in 2009 to a consortium comprising RWE npower renewables (npower) and SERL. Following npower’s decision to exit from the project in 2010 due to the scale of its other renewable generation commitments, The Crown Estate stepped in with a £1 million investment to keep Inch Cape on track and protect this key Scottish offshore wind industry project.

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Source: thecrownestate, June 06, 2011; Image: inchcapewind