Dong Energy, E.ON and Fred. Olsen Renewables have formed a consortium to bid for Round 3 UK Offshore Wind Farm Programme.

The consortium has bid for exclusive rights on a number of zones as part of The Crown Estate’s Round 3 Offshore Wind Farm programme.

Referring to the Round 3, Dave Rogers, regional director for renewables at E.ON, said the wind farms are expected to be located in a much more challenging environment than ever before. In this context, the consortium, bringing together companies with the financial ability and the experience of working on major on- and offshore wind projects, as well as working in difficult offshore conditions in the oil and gas industry, has been formed.

The consortium members have been involved in over 60 percent of the existing operational offshore wind farms around the world and are currently building five offshore wind farms with a capacity of 800MW.

The Crown Estate, an independent body which owns all the seabed within 12 nautical miles of the UK coast, last month said it was awarding exclusivity agreements to companies and consortia to develop wind farms on 10 sites in the sea around Scotland. The sites could generate a total of more than six gigawatts of offshore wind power. The 10 exclusivity agreements are designed to allow developers to begin initial survey and consultation processes for their sites while the Scottish Government conducts a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for offshore wind within Scottish territorial waters.