Celtic Sea PDA 3 is a 1.5 GW commercial-scale floating offshore wind project development area in the UK Celtic Sea that was awarded to Equinor through The Crown Estate’s Floating Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5. The site is one of three 1.5 GW PDAs offered in Round 5, which together could deliver u...
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By 19 November 2025, The Crown Estate reported that it had carried out a Plan‑level Habitats Regulations Assessment early in the process for Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5 in the Celtic Sea, completing this ahead of the auction so bidders for the three floating offshore wind Project Development Areas, including PDA 3, could participate with increased confidence that potential impacts on nature had been considered alongside spatial design.
In October 2025, Equinor entered into an agreement for lease with The Crown Estate for its 1.5 GW floating offshore wind project in Celtic Sea PDA 3, formalising the seabed rights awarded in Round 5 and allowing Equinor to progress detailed design, surveys, EIA and consents.
On 12 June 2025, in Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5, The Crown Estate selected Equinor as a preferred bidder and awarded it development rights for a 1.5 GW floating offshore wind project in PDA 3 in the Celtic Sea, with an annual option fee of GBP 350/MW, while Gwynt Glas secured PDA 1.
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Geotechnical investigations of the seabed within the Celtic Sea Round 5 areas, including PDA 3, were planned by The Crown Estate to take place in the summer of 2024 as part of the pre-consent survey programme to obtain detailed soil and sub‑seabed information for floating foundation and mooring design.
The Crown Estate’s Round 5 Information Memorandum and FAQ state that National Grid ESO’s Holistic Network Design Follow Up Exercise for the Celtic Sea will culminate in a recommended offshore transmission network design for the three PDAs (4.5GW total), including the export connection for PDA 3, with ESO’s recommendations expected by around March 2024 so that bidders have indicative transmission configurations and connection dates before ITT Stage 1.
Metocean surveys to characterise wind, wave and current conditions in the Celtic Sea, to be delivered by Partrac for The Crown Estate’s pre-consent surveys around the PDAs including PDA 3, were scheduled to commence in early 2024.
In December 2023, The Crown Estate’s PDA 3 Characterisation Report documented a spatial analysis of Levelised Cost of Energy and engineering risk, concluding that PDAs 1–3, including PDA 3, lie in a relatively low LCOE area near shore suitable for HVAC export and that multiple floating technology types are feasible despite some significant but manageable metocean and geotechnical risks.
On 2 October 2023, The Crown Estate announced it would proceed with three, rather than four, Celtic Sea Project Development Areas of roughly equal size, each with up to 1.5 GW capacity, setting out the final planned locations for the new floating wind farms and thereby confirming the PDA 3 site that Equinor would later develop.
On 2 October 2023, The Crown Estate outlined its plans for Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5 in the Celtic Sea and confirmed that the programme would include an upfront Plan‑level Habitats Regulations Assessment, alongside extensive marine surveys and coordinated grid design work, to help de‑risk development of the three floating offshore wind Project Development Areas, including PDA 3.
Digital aerial surveys to assess populations of birds and marine mammals over the Celtic Sea Round 5 project development areas, including PDA 3, were started in September 2023 by HiDef Aerial Surveying Ltd to support environmental characterisation and impact assessment.
As part of The Crown Estate’s pre-consent survey programme for the Celtic Sea PDAs, geophysical surveys of the seabed, covering areas including PDA 3, were started in July 2023 by Fugro to provide high‑resolution bathymetry and side‑scan sonar imagery and identify seabed features and objects.
By 10 July 2023, The Crown Estate had revealed four Celtic Sea project development areas in the "sweet spot" closest to Pembrokeshire, with fixed outer boundaries, 1 km buffer zones between the PDAs and turbine exclusion zones, marking the initial identification of discrete Round 5 floating wind zones that included the area later designated as PDA 3.
Following stakeholder engagement in February 2022, The Crown Estate completed an Exclusions Model and weighted Restrictions Model for floating wind in the Celtic Sea, mapping legal, physical and soft constraints such as existing infrastructure, IMO shipping routes, environmental designations, navigation, fisheries and landscape visibility to refine suitable areas that include what is now PDA 3.
In October 2020, The Crown Estate, working with consultant Everoze, published the Broad Horizons report which mapped engineering solutions against sea and seabed conditions to define fixed and floating offshore wind Key Resource Areas, including the floating wind KRA in the Celtic Sea that underpins the later identification of Project Development Areas such as PDA 3.
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