UK sees growth in offshore wind revenues
From Offshore Wind Journal
The Crown Estate has record income return of £329 million (US$424 million) to the UK HM Treasury, up 8.1 per cent on 2015/16, with the value of its energy, minerals and infrastructure portfolio increasing mainly due to offshore wind.
The Crown Estate, which manages the seabed to the 12nm territorial sea limit, and holds the rights to the resources to develop renewable energy out to the continental shelf, has played a major role in the development of the offshore wind energy industry in the UK, and says the offshore wind sector is now meeting over 5 per cent of the UK’s electricity demand and is on-course to meet 10 per cent by 2020.
Alison Nimmo, chief executive of The Crown Estate said: “We have delivered another strong set of results. This outperformance reflects many years of disciplined market positioning in our chosen sectors and has made our business resilient at a time of political and economic uncertainty. For over a decade we’ve carefully timed our development pipeline, focused on creating brilliant places in the best locations and maintained our active support of the UK’s world-leading offshore wind sector.
“Looking ahead, we expect returns to remain subdued, but we are confident in the underlying strength of our markets and our commitment to quality in what we deliver. The business has continued to focus on the active management and development of high quality assets in the best locations. Its strategy combines scale and expertise in carefully chosen markets with a customer-focused approach to deliver consistent and sustainable outperformance over the long term. These sectors include central London, regional retail and offshore wind.”