The Crown Estate is offering an opportunity to lease development rights for an area of seabed off the coast of Blyth within United Kingdom territorial waters for the purpose of deploying an offshore wind test and demonstration project.

The site is a 14 square kilometre area situated off the coast of Blyth and has been consented for the deployment of an up to a 99.9 MW wind farm. The site is consented to accommodate a test and demonstration project of 3 arrays in water depths of 35, 45 and 55 m (respectively) with up to 5 turbines in each array. The blade tip height 195 m.

A Marine Licence from the Marine Management Organisation (Offshore Marine Licence L2013/00303) and a planning consent under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1998 were awarded for the site in October 2013 and it is anticipated that these consents will be made available to the successful tenderer.

The Crown Estate is looking for projects to come forward which will have a minimum of 70% of the installed generating capacity being from prototype or Series 0 wind turbines that have not previously been deployed commercially. In addition to this requirement, other innovative technologies, such as foundations, may also be included.

Applicants should be aware that there will be a strong preference at the ITT stage for those projects that demonstrate a credible plan and the necessary resourcing to deliver a project that commences operation in the 2016/17 financial year. The Crown Estate will consider bids that would construct a project beyond this time horizon, subject to a longstop date of construction commencing prior to 3 October 2018.

Expressions of Interest and registration for pre-qualification are invited from 12 May to 11.6.2014 which will be followed by an Invitation to Tender on 1 July with tenders required by 15.8.2014. Responses should propose projects that demonstrate up to 15 turbines with installed capacity within the existing consents (99.9 MW).

Subject to the terms of the tender the successful tenderer will be awarded an Agreement for Lease over the aforementioned site with rights to step through to a Lease subject to satisfactorily meeting agreed conditions.