Lease Application

In December 2009, Vattenfall Wind Power Limited submitted formal bid documents to The Crown Estate for the right to develop an extension to the existing Kentish Flats Offshore Wind Farm. This bid followed The Crown Estate’s July 2009 invitation for Expressions of Interest (EOI) from companies seeking to extend constructed or consented Round 1 and Round 2 offshore wind farms, a process specifically designed to enable incremental capacity additions adjacent to operating projects. Vattenfall’s submission related to an extension west and south of the original Kentish Flats site, drawing on the shallow water setting, existing grid connection, and operational experience built up since the wind farm’s commissioning. The December 2009 bid can be interpreted as the project’s formal lease application for the Kentish Flats Extension area, as it triggered The Crown Estate’s subsequent decision-making on seabed rights. The documentation would have demonstrated how the proposed extension met The Crown Estate’s prerequisites on boundary sharing, scale, synergies with the original site, and avoidance of conflicts such as designated shipping lanes and sensitive ecological areas. Following evaluation of these bid documents, The Crown Estate awarded Vattenfall the rights in May 2010 to develop the Kentish Flats Extension, subject to securing all necessary consents. This sequence establishes December 2009 as the key lease-application milestone for securing seabed access for the extension project.