Ocean Winds Celtic Sea (Celtic Sea PDA 2) is a 1.5 GW commercial-scale floating offshore wind project awarded to Ocean Winds -- the 50:50 joint venture between EDP Renovaveis and ENGIE -- under The Crown Estate's Floating Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5. PDA 2 was the third Round 5 site to be alloc...
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On 3 March 2026, Ocean Winds signed an Agreement for Lease with The Crown Estate for its 1.5 GW floating offshore wind project in the Celtic Sea, formally executing the seabed lease for PDA 2. The agreement, signed by the Ocean Winds JV (EDPR and ENGIE) and The Crown Estate, covers a 358 km² site in 71–88 metre water depths straddling Welsh and English waters and allows Ocean Winds to commence early-stage development, including detailed design, site surveys, EIA work, public engagement and consent applications.
On 19 November 2025, The Crown Estate announced that Ocean Winds, the 50:50 joint venture between EDPR and ENGIE, had been selected through a direct award process as preferred developer for the third floating offshore wind site in the Celtic Sea (PDA 2), with capacity of up to 1.5 GW. This award, following the Round 5 auction, granted Ocean Winds the development rights for the site off the coasts of Wales and South West England and committed the developer to pay option fees of £350/MW per year, alongside social value obligations on apprenticeships and local supply chains.
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Celtic Sea PDA 2, Celtic Sea Round 5 PDA 2, Crown Estate R5 PDA 2, PDA 2, Project Development Area 2, Leasing Round 5 PDA 2, Ocean Winds Celtic Sea, Ocean Winds Celtic Sea floating offshore wind, Ocean Winds (EDPR-ENGIE JV) Celtic Sea, Celtic Sea Offshore Wind Farm Limited
Ahead of awarding Ocean Winds the third Celtic Sea Round 5 site, The Crown Estate agreed a coordinated grid connection plan with the UK National Energy System Operator for all three Celtic Sea floating wind projects. This system planning work assessed how to connect the developments, including Ocean Winds Celtic Sea, to the national grid, reducing development risk and supporting the feasibility of delivering up to 4.5 GW of floating capacity in the region.
By late 2025, The Crown Estate had carried out extensive geophysical surveys across the Celtic Sea Round 5 areas, including the Ocean Winds Celtic Sea site, to map seabed conditions and derisk development. The survey results were to be shared with Ocean Winds, Equinor and Gwynt Glas as the three successful developers for use in their project design and planning.
Alongside geophysical work, The Crown Estate completed geotechnical investigations in the Celtic Sea Round 5 Project Development Areas, including the future Ocean Winds Celtic Sea lease area. These surveys provided soil and sub-surface data to support foundation and mooring design for the planned 1.5 GW floating wind projects and their transmission infrastructure, with results to be shared with the three developers.
On 19 November 2025, The Crown Estate confirmed that Ocean Winds’ 1.5 GW Celtic Sea floating wind project will pay option fees of £350 per megawatt per year, equivalent to £525,000 annually, for seabed rights under Round 5, aligning its financial commitments with those of the Equinor and Gwynt Glas projects. The option fee applies to the full 1,500 MW capacity of the PDA2 lease area and is payable each year over the development option period.
The Crown Estate completed a wider programme of pre-consent surveys in the Celtic Sea Round 5 areas, including metocean measurements, digital aerial surveys and other technical and environmental investigations covering the Ocean Winds Celtic Sea site. These datasets, gathered ahead of leasing, were intended to accelerate development by giving Ocean Winds and the other developers robust baseline information for project design, Environmental Impact Assessments and stakeholder engagement.
The Crown Estate confirmed updated Project Development Areas (PDAs) for floating wind development in the Celtic Sea, with its geophysics survey scope of work showing multiple PDAs (including PDA 2) and noting that these PDA updates had been announced to the market on 2 October 2024.
The National Energy System Operator (ESO) published the 'Beyond 2030: Celtic Sea' recommended network design, proposing how to connect up to 4.5 GW of floating offshore wind generation from the three Celtic Sea Project Development Areas, including Celtic Sea PDA 2, into the onshore transmission system via one HVDC and two HVAC connections in South Wales and South West England.
The Information Memorandum states that ESO is expected to issue Holistic Network Design Follow Up Exercise (HNDFUE) recommendations by the end of March 2024, setting out offshore network design and onshore transmission interface site recommendations for each Celtic Sea Round 5 PDA, including PDA 2. These recommendations are intended to give bidders full visibility of the transmission network design associated with the PDA 2 offshore transmission connection before the start of ITT Stage 1.
On 13 February 2024, The Crown Estate concluded the plan-level Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) for Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5 in the Celtic Sea. This assessment mapped environmental constraints and mitigation requirements across the three Project Development Areas, including the future Ocean Winds Celtic Sea site, to ensure leasing and subsequent project development account for protected habitats and other environmental sensitivities.
The Crown Estate published the Information Memorandum for Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5 on 7 December 2023, formally setting out the Celtic Sea opportunity with three fixed-boundary Project Development Areas of up to 1.5 GW each and around 1,000 km² of seabed in total. This designation established the development zone that later became Ocean Winds’ 1.5 GW Celtic Sea (PDA 2) floating offshore wind project site off South Wales and South West England.
As of December 2023, The Crown Estate confirms that the three Celtic Sea Round 5 Project Development Areas, including PDA 2, are within the scope of National Grid Electricity System Operator’s Holistic Network Design Follow Up Exercise (HNDFUE). The exercise, undertaken by ESO with engagement from The Crown Estate and National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET), covers offshore network design and onshore transmission interface site recommendations for each PDA, providing a coordinated framework for the future PDA 2 offshore transmission connection.
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