Future Offshore Wind – March 2026 Market Questionnaire – Preliminary Market Engagement Notice

Description

The Crown Estate, as manager of the seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland, periodically holds competitive tenders to award seabed rights for the development, construction and operation of offshore wind farms. In September 2024, The Crown Estate set out its approach to bringing such future tenders to market in its Future of Offshore Wind publication (Future of offshore wind | The Crown Estate). This was published alongside a report setting out our ambition to develop a Marine Delivery Routemap, which is intended to help enable a more holistic approach to be taken in relation to seabed development in the future. With the recent announcement of our intention to launch a new leasing round in 2027 (Offshore Wind Leasing Round 6) and building on the approach taken by The Crown Estate in previous leasing rounds, such as Offshore Wind Leasing Rounds 4 and 5, The Crown Estate is committed to engaging with a broad spectrum of market participants and other stakeholders to inform the development of its future leasing processes. In this context, The Crown Estate is undertaking market engagement through a questionnaire to gather input on the design of future leasing rounds. This questionnaire is targeted at offshore wind developers and investors only and will be open to responses from 30 March 2026 to 8 May 2026. (An extension to the deadline to reply has been requested by two developers and an extra 7 days allowed for this.) It is hoped that this market engagement questionnaire will provide The Crown Estate with a further opportunity to listen to and understand individual and industry-wide perspectives, thereby ensuring that the evolving needs and priorities of the offshore wind sector as a whole can be taken into account by The Crown Estate when shaping future leasing opportunities. This market engagement is intended for existing and prospective offshore wind developers and investors only i.e. those who may be interested in bidding in a leasing round, either as a sole bidder or as part of a consortium. If offshore wind project development and investment companies wish to participate in this market engagement event, then they should apply by sending an email to round6@thecrownestate.co.uk. The Crown Estate intends to engage with other relevant stakeholders separately at appropriate times and in an appropriate way. The Crown Estate is in the process of designing future offshore wind leasing rounds, which these discussions will inform. There is currently no formal date for the launch of the next offshore wind leasing round. The date set out below (the “Engagement deadline”) refers to the engagement activity which is the subject of this PME Notice, rather than any contract notice for a leasing process. For further information on The Crown Estate’s involvement in offshore wind, please visit https://www.thecrownestate.co.uk/our-business/marine/offshore-wind