GB Energy partners with The Crown Estate to unlock 20GW+ offshore wind

The UK government has announced a partnership between its new public entity Great British Energy and The Crown Estate, which will deliver up to 20-30GW of new offshore wind developments by 2030.

The news comes as the Great British Energy Bill is introduced by the government, following its official announcement in the King's speech earlier this month and marks the start of a new role for the public sector in driving early development of offshore wind projects.

The Crown Estate has a £16 billion ($21 billion) portfolio of land and seabed and operates independently. It brings long-established expertise to the partnership, as well as new investment powers recently announced by government.

The partnership has the potential to leverage up to £60 billion ($77 billion) of private investment. It will focus on investing in developing domestic energy supply, as well as decreasing the time it takes to get offshore wind projects delivering power.

The partners also aim to lower risk for developers, enabling projects to build out faster after leasing and crowding in private sector investment.

The partnership with The Crown Estate marks the first of Great British Energy's steps towards achieving Labour's goals for the UK's energy sector. Commenting on the announcement, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: "This innovative partnership between Great British Energy and the Crown Estate is an important step toward our mission for clean energy by 2030, and bringing down energy bills for good.

"This agreement will drive up to £60 billion in investment into the sector, turbocharging our country toward energy security, the next generation of skilled jobs, and lowering bills for families and business."

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Greg Jackson, Octopus Energy founder and CEO commented: “The starting gun has been fired, and the race is now on for the UK to become a global clean energy superpower, delivering cheaper bills to British households.

“We’re particularly excited about the potential to speed up grid connections, which will allow us to build cheap green generation quickly. This will accelerate connections to new homes, factories, and data centres, thereby lowering bills and improving productivity.”

Alethea Warrington, senior campaigner at climate charity Possible, shared positive sentiment about the news, stating: “The new government’s plan to get on with the job of cleaning up the UK’s energy supply and cutting energy bills with new clean energy is really welcome, as is the plan to scale up offshore wind."

Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband said:  "The agreement with The Crown Estate will lead to more investment, cleaner power, more energy security, and is a statement of intent that it will be a permanent and transformative institution for our country."

Sam Hollister, head of Economics, Policy and Investment, LCP Delta suggests that first true test of the partnership will be this year’s CfD auction. "It is essential that industry responds by bringing forward significant volumes of renewable power to support the government's ambition for clean power by 2030. With zero offshore wind procured last year, the industry and the UK’s decarbonisation ambitions are playing catch-up."

Hollister added: “If GB Energy is able to simplify the acquisition of land rights and quicken planning permissions for both the offshore wind farms themselves, as well as onshoring the power, then it is possible that we could see schemes moving more quickly through the development stages."

The Crown Estate Bill

The Crown Estate Bill, to be released today, aims to increase investment power and borrowing capabilities. Furthermore, it aims to remove outdated restrictions on its activities to facilitate investments in next-generation technologies to enhance spatial mapping of the seabed.

The Crown Estate is currently running one of the world’s largest commercial-scale floating wind leasing programmes in the Celtic Sea. This partnership, according to a government statement, will accelerate that development even further.