Crown estate wind project touts £1.4bn boost and new jobs
Lewis Smith, Local Democracy Reporter
The Crown Estate has announced the latest step forward in the development of two offshore floating wind farms planned for the Celtic Sea.
In June 2025 the estate, which manages the sea-bed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland, announced that Equinor and Gwynt Glas – a joint venture between EDF Renewables UK and ESB – will be their preferred partners to build two new wind farms set off the coast of south west Wales and England.
The project could eventually create thousands of new jobs for places like Port Talbot in the future, as well as generating a £1.4bn economic boost for the UK, and powering millions of homes.
They could also be among the largest floating wind developments in the world once completed.
Forefront of wind market
A spokesperson for The Crown Estate said: “The UK has cemented its place at the forefront of the global offshore wind market with some of the world’s most experienced offshore wind developers being selected to deliver two new floating windfarms off the coasts of Wales and South West England.”
The news follows seperate details from The Crown Estate of a £400 million investment into the UK’s offshore wind supply chain earlier this month.
Speaking after the announcement the council leader for Neath Port Talbot, Steve Hunt said: “This announcement paves the way for progress on the Celtic Sea project and is an extremely important moment for this county borough and for this region.
“We are looking forward to playing our part in developing the local and regional supply chain to maximise the benefits from renewable energy projects in the Celtic Sea, which will in turn contribute to the delivery of a green energy revolution.”
Transformative
Director of RenewableUK Cymru, Jessica Hooper, added: “We welcome this announcement of the first two large-scale floating wind sites in the Celtic Sea, as this technology has the potential to be transformative for the Welsh economy.
“Wales is poised to play a leading role in offshore wind. Over the next decade alone, there is up to £32 billion in economic value at stake, a £4.8 billion opportunity for Welsh businesses, alongside more than 3,000 well-paid jobs.”
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What guarantee do they give that folks in Port Talbot will get the jobs?
This has nothing to do with Wales, other than the cable will be attached to the grid near Pembroke in Milford Haven. The investor is French, the wind turbines are from Denmark, the site to developed is owned by the Crown estate in London, and the power generated will be transmitted on the existing 400Kv south Wales connector lines to Avonmouth. The 3000 jobs punt for Port Talbot is pure fantasy.
The Danish installers will order in a lot of pizzas. Each order might count as a temporary job.
This was announced earlier in month and Jo Stevens made the comment it was good that the Crown Estate was not devolved so Labour UK can reap any benefits once Govts of Norway, France and Ireland get their cuts from their state owned energy companies who are developing the project, meanwhile GBE is twiddling it’s thumbs.
The main issue with devolving is not the money; it’s the planning. Scottish government has delayed several offshore farms. Some companies have written off over £100m in investment due to the delays from SG. This reduces investor confidence in the UK, increasing costs of other wind farms across the UK, which ultimately we as consumers pay a premium because UK projects are deemed higher risk. It’s also cost Scotland thousands of jobs, and UK taxpayers millions due to the legal ramifications.
Schrödinger’s devolution.
Planning is devolved, energy policy is reserved. Scotland also has a completely separate legal system, including separate planning laws.
If planning is sought in Scotland, in line with English law, its going to hit the buffers; wherever differences exist. Cue SNPbaaad, Scotgovbaaad as part of of the Westminster or mainstream media blame game.
Not quite that simple, read about the scottish system and the delays. To get a major farm operational, there is a whole raft of issues needed to align; ports, grid connections, environmental planning issues. missing deadlines imposed in CfD rounds. Reforms are underway, which suggests SG know they were at fault(!), but it was certainly a total mess, and has ultimately costs jobs and investment
I looked at Brychan’s prescient analysis and it is right on the money. Well done! We continue to have a dialogue of the deaf in Wales, or is it more a monologue with the inhabitants of fantasy island? Grand schemes, telephone numbers, excited press releases. Wonderful, until someone looks carefully. Spoilsport.. The leader of Neath Port Talbot councils rejoices at the “local and regional supply chain.” In fairness he is entirely correct, the supply chains in Denmark are buzzing; an easy commute for redundant steel workers. Jessica Hooper of the grandly named Renewable UK Cymru, no doubt dripping with excitement,… Read more »
Does anybody still not understand why the English government won’t devolve the crown estate to us or why they won’t allow us to gain independence, Wales is worth too much to them.
Yes, it’s called theft.
We’re being stolen from.
As pointed out, it is a massive shame UK companies aren’t more involved in these developments. Equinor is 2/3 owned by the Norwegian government, so their profits from this wind farm will be used to invest in public services in Norway! But this is the consequence of not building long term expertise, supply chains, skills, ability to finance projects. You can’t go from 0GW to building 4.5GW of offshore wind farms overnight and unfortunately the UK doesn’t have the experience of developing such projects and now to catch up with these companies. Sorry to sound defeatist, but we should have… Read more »
The problem is ideology. Too many believe that magic will happen if only the state gets out of the way yet time and again this results in state-backed firms from other countries swooping in and taking the profits home to subsidise their own services.
Freemarketeer extremists dream about building a Singapore-on-Thames economy yet that economy (now the 2nd richest in the world) is only possible because of huge state intervention, with fingers in almost every pie including owning 85% of housing.
Laissez-faire doesn’t work.
In light of the comments above, I think this is a good time for Welsh politicians to speak up really loudly and clarify exactly how they will meaningfully improve lives for us all in Wales. The solutions are in our comments above. I apologise if any of the leaders of the Welsh political parties have actually said that they will devolve crown estates to Wales, make apprenticeship programs a compulsory part of large scale developments and ideally use Welsh skills and factories to complete these projects.