Norway’s Equinor and UK-based Gwynt Glas (a joint venture of EDF and Ireland's ESB) have signed Agreements for Lease with The Crown Estate for their respective floating offshore wind projects in the Celtic Sea (United Kingdom), marking a key milestone in the UK’s Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5. The two developers were named preferred bidders in June 2025 for sites located off the coasts of South Wales and south-west England, each with a planned capacity of up to 1.5 GW. These agreements grant the companies exclusive rights to advance the development of their projects.
Round 5 is expected to deliver up to 4.5 GW of floating offshore wind capacity across three sites in total. The Crown Estate noted it is still working to appoint a developer for the third remaining site and will provide an update in due course. Once project development is complete, the selected developers will be eligible to apply for full commercial leases to build and operate the wind parks, which could become operational by the mid-2030s.