GBThe Crown Estate Offshore Wind Leasing Round 4
Also known as: Offshore Wind Leasing Round 4, The Crown Estate Round 4, Crown Estate Round 4, Round 4, TCE Round 4, UK Offshore Wind Leasing Round 4, England and Wales Offshore Wind Leasing Round 4
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First Crown Estate offshore wind leasing round since Round 3 in 2010. At auction open the operative policy backdrop was the March 2019 UK Offshore Wind Sector Deal and its 30 GW by 2030 target. During R4's longer lifecycle UK ambitions rose to 40 GW (2020) and 50 GW (2022), ScotWind concluded in parallel in a different jurisdiction, and downstream CfD allocation rounds remained commercially important companions for project bankability.
4
Sealed · multi-round
Agreement for Lease (AfL) + Wind Farm Lease + Transmission Lease
8.0 GW
Projects were expected to become operational toward the end of the decade / next decade, following Preferred Bidder Letters in Q1 2021 and AfL signing on 19 January 2023.
GBP 76.2k–154.0k/MW/yr
10 years
CPI
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Missed AfL or Wind Farm Lease milestones can give The Crown Estate termination rights; Wind Farm Lease milestone extensions are permitted for force majeure.
Grants exclusivity to develop the seabed site for offshore wind for up to 10 years maximum. During the AfL period the developer undertakes consenting, financing/FID, surveys, and pre-construction work. No planning status is conferred by the auction itself; DCO and marine licensing remain the developer's responsibility.
Lease for construction and operation of the offshore wind project after AfL option exercise.
Lease for construction and operation of transmission assets associated with the project, on terms similar to the Wind Farm Lease; intended to transfer to an OFTO at divestment.
→ The Crown Estate may terminate the Wind Farm Lease if the milestone is missed, subject to permitted force majeure extensions.
→ The Crown Estate may terminate the Wind Farm Lease if the milestone is missed, subject to permitted force majeure extensions.
→ The Crown Estate may terminate the Wind Farm Lease if the milestone is missed, subject to permitted force majeure extensions.
TCW: Projects were expected to become operational toward the end of the decade / next decade, following Preferred Bidder Letters in Q1 2021 and AfL signing on 19 January 2023.
Late delivery: Missed AfL or Wind Farm Lease milestones can give The Crown Estate termination rights; Wind Farm Lease milestone extensions are permitted for force majeure.
Option Fee Deposit paid on execution of the Preferred Bidder Letter. Formula: one year's Option Fee Bid multiplied by project capacity. On AfL entry, the deposit converts into the first year's option fee payment rather than remaining a separate security.
Trigger: Payable at Preferred Bidder Letter execution at the close of the winning Bidding Cycle.
Anchor: fixed year count
Indexation: none — Single upfront amount based on the winning annual option fee bid; no separate indexation stated for the deposit itself.
Annual option fee annuity under the Wind Farm AfL, calculated as the winning bid in GBP/MW/year multiplied by project capacity, CPI-indexed from the signing year.
Trigger: Begins on Wind Farm AfL entry after completion of the Plan-Level HRA and related approvals.
Duration: 10 years
Anchor: until event
Indexation: cpi — CPI-indexed from the AfL signing year.
Post-exercise Wind Farm Lease rent. During the pre-generation phase, rent is the lower of the annual option fee instalment and the CPI-indexed base rent. During the generation phase, rent is the greater of 2% of gross turnover, a minimum-output limb based on 2% of average project revenue over the previous two years, and the CPI-indexed base rent.
GBP 2 percent of gross turnover
Trigger: Applies under the Wind Farm Lease; generation-phase turnover rent starts when the wind farm begins generating.
Duration: 60 years
Anchor: until event
Indexation: cpi — Base rent and related comparator limbs are CPI-indexed.
Multi-round daily sealed-bid process. In each daily Bidding Cycle, each Eligible Bidder may submit one Eligible Project with an Option Fee Bid in GBP/MW/year. One project is awarded per cycle: the highest-priced bid that passes the cascading eligibility waterfall wins.
Reserve: GBP 250 GBP/MW/year — All bids must be above the reserve price of GBP 250/MW/year; bids at or below reserve are rejected.
Stop: Cycles continue until aggregate awarded capacity is at least 7 GW and projects have been identified across at least three Bidding Areas, subject to a hard maximum of 8.5 GW and a maximum of 3.5 GW in any one Bidding Area. If 7 GW is reached in only two Bidding Areas, at least one further cycle is run in a third area.
Selection: Bids are ranked by descending Option Fee Bid. The highest-priced bid that passes the full eligibility waterfall is selected for that cycle.
Disclosure: After each cycle, The Crown Estate discloses the awarded project's capacity, location, and option fee to Eligible Bidders; bidder identity is withheld until the end of ITT Stage 2.
Pass/fail pre-qualification financial standing gate. Extracted thresholds include net assets of at least GBP 70 million, average annual turnover of at least GBP 600 million over the prior three years, and at least GBP 45 million of cash, cash equivalents, or committed undrawn credit facilities from qualifying banks. Consortium members may satisfy these in aggregate in proportion to their proposed project shares.
Pass/fail pre-qualification technical experience gate. Extracted criteria include project-management experience on commercial projects with at least GBP 25 million expenditure, signed and current HSE policy, regulatory-action disclosure and mitigation, experience entering a grid connection agreement for a project of at least 50 MW since 2009, consent experience since 2009, and EIA management capability including the stated alternative route where only one project type can be evidenced directly.
Pass/fail pre-qualification legal and bidder-structure gate. Includes mandatory and discretionary exclusion criteria, allowed bidder forms (sole bidder or consortium), prohibition on multiple consortium memberships, identification of the tenant legal entity for the AfL/Transmission AfL, and consortium governance disclosures on reserved matters and deadlock provisions.
Pass/fail ITT Stage 1 financial robustness gate requiring a high-level six-monthly development cost plan for each project and evidence of sources of funds covering a rolling 18-month look-forward of development expenditure during a five-year development period.
Bidder must evidence financial capability to cover the first three years of development cash requirements for the proposed project, including option fee instalments. The pre-declared figure then becomes the first cap in the ITT Stage 2 daily-cycle eligibility waterfall.
Pass/fail project-definition gate covering the extracted project envelope rules: maximum project size 1.5 GW; minimum size 600 MW in Dogger Bank and 400 MW elsewhere; minimum density 3 MW/km²; project wholly within a single Bidding Area; maximum perimeter:sqrt(area) ratio of 5:1; avoidance of hard constraints; minimum 7.5 km spacing from existing offshore wind farms unless owner consent is obtained; no overlap among a bidder's Primary Project Sites; and Variant Project Sites limited to 50-100% of the corresponding Primary Site's area/capacity with at least 50% overlap.
Pass/fail ITT Stage 1 technical gate requiring identification of development constraints and mitigations, a project schedule aligned to Section 9 milestones, evidence of an appropriate HSE management system and Construction Regulations compliance, acceptance of the forms of legal agreements, and project design information to inform the Plan-Level HRA.
Method: quantitative formula
Unit: GBP/MW/year
- total option fee — First tiebreak: total option fee, calculated as GBP/MW/year multiplied by project MW capacity.
- option fee density — Second tiebreak: option fee density, calculated as total option fee divided by the site area in km².
- best and final offer — Third tiebreak: Best and Final Offer (BAFO) process with a one-day delay to the subsequent Bidding Cycle; further BAFOs are used as necessary until a unique winner is identified.
No revenue-support instrument. Revenue comes from downstream offtake contracts, merchant markets, or bilateral PPAs.
Legal basis: Crown Estate Act 1961 and Energy Act 2004. The Crown Estate ran Round 4, conducted the Plan-Level HRA process for the tender, and entered into the AfLs and leases.
Legal basis: Contemporaneous UK energy policy department during the R4 tender period; the Secretary of State for BEIS issued the July 2022 no-objection letter on the Plan-Level HRA.
Legal basis: Planning Act 2008 — post-award development consent order decision-maker for English waters projects.
Legal basis: Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 — post-award marine licensing authority for English waters.
Legal basis: Environment (Wales) Act 2016 and Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 — post-award marine licensing and consenting authority for Welsh waters.
Bidder must evidence financial capability to cover the first three years of development cash requirements, including option fee instalments; remaining amount is then tested first in each daily-cycle eligibility waterfall.
UK Contracts for Difference (CfD) Allocation Rounds are downstream revenue-support auctions paired with R4. They are commercially essential for most projects' route to market, but not a formal legal prerequisite to hold the R4 lease. As of AR7 results published 14 January 2026, two R4 projects have already secured CfDs.
| Winner | Site/Lot | Category | Capacity | Price | Total Value | Delivery | Term | Mechanism | Signed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RWE Renewables | Project identifier 1 | Bidding Area 1 | 1,500 MW | GBP 76,203/MW/yr | 114,304,500 | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |
| RWE Renewables | Project identifier 2 | Bidding Area 1 | 1,500 MW | GBP 88,900/MW/yr | 133,350,000 | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |
| Green Investment Group – Total | Project identifier 3 | Bidding Area 2 | 1,500 MW | GBP 83,049/MW/yr | 124,573,500 | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |
| Consortium of EnBW and BP | Project identifier 4 | Bidding Area 4 | 1,500 MW | GBP 154,000/MW/yr | 231,000,000 | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |
| Offshore Wind Limited, a joint venture between Cobra Instalaciones y Servicios, SA and Flotation Energy plc | Project identifier 5 | Bidding Area 4 | 480 MW | GBP 93,233/MW/yr | 44,751,840 | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |
| Consortium of EnBW and BP | Project identifier 6 | Bidding Area 4 | 1,500 MW | GBP 154,000/MW/yr | 231,000,000 | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |