Gwynt Glas

As part of The Crown Estate’s Floating Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5, the Gwynt Glas joint venture between EDF Renewables and ESB was selected as a preferred bidder for a 1.5 GW Project Development Area in the Celtic Sea, securing agreement in principle for a seabed lease alongside Equinor for a second site.

On 12 June 2025, the Gwynt Glas joint venture between EDF Power Solutions and ESB was confirmed as the shared ownership and development vehicle for a 1.5 GW floating offshore wind project in the Celtic Sea, when it was selected as a preferred bidder in The Crown Estate’s Floating Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5, establishing the JV as the project’s co-developer and owner.

The National Energy System Operator (ESO, now NESO) published its Beyond 2030: Celtic Sea recommended high‑level network design, setting out how 4.5 GW of floating offshore wind across three PDAs will connect into South Wales and South‑West England, ring‑fencing this capacity in the connections queue and giving developers such as the future Celtic Sea PDA 1 clarity on grid connection strategy.

On 16 September 2024, the National Energy System Operator published its Beyond 2030: Celtic Sea recommended high‑level network design, proposing three dedicated grid connections (one HVDC and two HVAC) for 4.5 GW of Celtic Sea floating wind including Celtic Sea PDA 1, and The Crown Estate simultaneously issued the Invitation to Tender for pre‑qualified bidders in Leasing Round 5, effectively ring‑fencing 4.5 GW of transmission capacity for the three PDAs.

On 28 February 2024, The Crown Estate formally launched the Celtic Sea Floating Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5 by publishing a concession notice on the UK Find a Tender service for three Project Development Areas totalling up to 4.5 GW, thereby initiating the regulated tender process through which seabed rights for Celtic Sea PDA 1 would be awarded.

In December 2023, The Crown Estate released an Information Memorandum for its Celtic Sea Floating Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5, outlining the opportunity to develop up to 4.5 GW of floating wind across three Project Development Areas including the area later designated as Celtic Sea PDA 1, and setting out the leasing framework and requirements for prospective bidders.

The Crown Estate confirmed the selection of four focused Project Development Areas (PDAs) in the Celtic Sea for its Floating Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5, defining the specific development areas that will host up to around 4 GW of floating capacity, including the area later developed as Celtic Sea PDA 1.

The Crown Estate’s Round 5 Celtic Sea Metocean Pre‑Consent Surveys (PCS) programme began data collection in June 2023 (collection period shown as June 2023–April 2025). The PCS metocean scope includes floating LiDAR-based wind measurement as part of the metocean campaign, implying the floating LiDAR measurement programme was deployed/started by Q2 2023.

In The Crown Estate’s December 2023 Information Memorandum for Celtic Sea Floating Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5, it is confirmed that all three Project Development Areas, including PDA 1, are within the scope of the Electricity System Operator’s Holistic Network Design Follow Up Exercise (HNDFUE). Through this process, National Grid Electricity System Operator is developing coordinated offshore network designs and recommending onshore network interface sites for each PDA at their maximum 1.5 GW capacity, establishing the regulatory planning framework for the future Celtic Sea PDA 1 Transmission connection to the GB national electricity transmission system, with recommendations expected by the end of March 2024.