Queen’s firm enters offshore energy race

A prototype of the biggest wind turbine in the world is set to be bought by the Crown Estate.

Crown Estate which is charged with the responsibility of managing the real estate and other properties of the Queen has signed an agreement to acquire Clipper Windpower’s seven and a half megawatt Britannia offshore wind turbine.

Crown Estate is in possession of the seabed around the United Kingdom and is therefore in a good position to profit from the enormous growth that is expected of the offshore wind power sector in the United Kingdom.

By the year 2020 the government intends to grow the capacity of offshore wind power generation from six hundred megawatts to thirty three gigawatts. The Crown Estate is thus well positioned to reap the benefits the opportunity provides.

Operators of offshore wind farms such as E.ON and Centrica have been paying a yearly fee of less than one hundredth of the worth of the electricity produced to the Crown Estate which fully owns the seabed around the United Kingdom. The Crown Estate, which remits most of its revenues to the government coffers, initially got into its initial offshore wind lease seven years ago but has since then entered into other deals valued at tens of millions of pounds.

Estimates of the amount of money the Crown Estate will get this year from offshore wind farms indicate a figure of around one hundred million pounds.

The dimensions of the wind turbine are a height of one hundred metres when installed under the sea but one hundred and seventy five metres when on land.

www.thecrownestate.co.uk