Energy

Supporting the UK’s energy transition with ongoing investment in offshore wind

Macquarie has been one of the largest investors in the UK offshore wind sector, and now we are looking to support the development of the next generation of offshore wind projects to help the UK government reach its ambitious 40 GW target by 2030.

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Sector Climate change, Energy
Sub-sector Wind
Location United Kingdom

Our investments have supported 50 per cent of the offshore wind farms in operation in the UK. Now, we are developing a 1.5 GW wind farm which has the potential to power over 1.3 million homes and reduce 2.3 million tonnes of CO2 every year.

Opportunity

The UK has one of the world’s most mature offshore wind markets and it currently employs around 11,000 people across the country1.

Macquarie has been a long-standing participant in this sector and has supported over half of the 10.4 GW of UK offshore wind capacity currently in operation. Building on this success, the UK Government has set a target to deploy 40 GW of offshore wind by 2030 – which the government believes could produce more than enough power to the equivalent of every single home in the UK2.

 

Approach

In 2019, The Crown Estate announced it would be launching the UK’s first major auction for offshore wind farm leases in more than a decade. This process was designed to bring forward around 8 GW of potential new offshore wind capacity with the opportunity to deliver clean electricity for more than seven million homes.

A team from Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (GIG) partnered with TotalEnergies’ renewable energy business in a 50-50 arrangement to bid into the process. This partnership is built on an existing relationship with GIG and TotalEnergies in South Korea where they are co-developing a major portfolio of floating offshore wind projects.

Both GIG and TotalEnergies are global renewable energy developers and investors and were able to bring significant expertise and technical capability to fully assess the potential bid zones and agree a bidding strategy for the auction round.

Outcome

At the conclusion of the auction, it was announced that GIG and TotalEnergies had secured the rights to develop a 1.5 GW offshore wind project off the Lincolnshire coast, east of the Humber Estuary. According to The Crown Estate, a project of this scale, once operational, could provide enough power for 1,394,000 homes and potentially reduce the UK’s CO2 emissions by 2,344,176 tonnes every year.

1.5 GW offshore wind development project secured with GIG and TotalEnergies

Potentially providing enough power for 1,394,000 homes

Potentially reducing the UK’s CO2 emissions by 2,344,176 tonnes every year

With this investment, we’re continuing our pioneering role in the UK’s energy transition and helping to establish offshore wind as the backbone of its new low-carbon energy system. Building on our track record as one of the country’s largest funders of offshore wind, this represents a significant increase in our commitment to the UK’s offshore wind sector. This adds to our growing portfolio of renewable developments in Europe and grows our global offshore wind development portfolio to over 13 GW."

Mark Dooley
Global Head of Macquarie Green Investment Group

  1. Committes Parliment, August 2020
  2. UK Government, October 2020

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