The United Kingdom Friday took a step forward in boosting offshore wind power capacity, enhancing energy security and meeting emissions targets as it announced successful bidders to develop 32 gigawatts of offshore wind energy.

The cost of developing the new generation capacity could require investment of around GBP100 billion, according to the Crown Estate, owner of the U.K. seabed. Ahead of Friday's announcement, it was expected that 25 gigawatts of new offshore wind capacity would be awarded.

Winners of the nine sites off the U.K. coast--the world's largest offshore wind tender to date--included major European utilities such as RWE AG (RWE.XE), E.ON AG (EOAN.XE), Centrica PLC (CNA.LN), Scottish and Southern Energy PLC (SSE.LN), Iberdrola SA (IBE.MC), Vattenfall, EDP Renovaveis (EDPR.LB), and others such as Statoil (STO), Siemens AG (SI) and Fluor (FLR).

U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the announcement would provide a substantial new platform for investing in U.K. industrial capacity.

"The offshore wind industry is at the heart of the U.K. economy's shift to low carbon and could be worth GBP75 billion and support up to 70,000 jobs by 2020," Brown said.

The largest development will be in the Dogger Bank zone, where up to 9 gigawatts of generation are to be installed by a consortium equally owned by each of SSE Renewables, RWE Npower Renewables, Statoil and Statkraft.

The scale of the challenge is significant. Wind farm developers face engineering and technology challenges as well as massive costs from an industry still in its infancy, developers and analysts have said.

Rob Hastings, director of marine estate at the Crown Estate, said the competition for each of the nine sites highlighted the attractiveness of the zones.

"The industry has today demonstrated an appetite to deliver up to 32 gigawatts of offshore wind farms operating by 2020 - which in itself is potentially a quarter or more of the U.K.'s electricity needs," he said.

Sarwjit Sambhi, managing director of gas and electricity supplier Centrica, said the sector would need a long-term stable support mechanism to make the investments commercially viable.

"Round 3 should send a strong signal to the renewables supply chain in the U.K. and a suitable support mechanism would incentivize its creation to increase competition, reducing costs and creating thousands of new jobs," Sambhi said.

Centrica was awarded exclusive rights Friday to develop 4.2 gigawatts in the Irish Sea zone.

The Round 3 tender significantly boosts the amount of offshore wind capacity to be installed in the U.K. Capacity put up for development in the Round 1 and 2 tenders totaled 8 gigawatts.

A consortium equally owned by Scottish Power Renewables and Vattenfall Vindkraft was chosen to develop up to 7.2 gigawatts in the Norfolk Bank zone.

Another consortium, equally owned by Mainstream Renewable Power and Siemens Project Ventures--and involving Hochtief Construction (HOT.XE)--was selected to develop up to 4 gigawatts in the Hornsea zone.

SeaGreen Wind Energy Ltd, equally owned by SSE Renewables and Fluor, will develop up to 3.5 gigawatts in the Firth of Forth zone.

Moray Offshore Renewables Ltd, which is 75% owned by EDP Renovaveis and 25% owned by SeaEnergy Renewables, was chosen to install up to 1.3 gigawatts in the Moray Firth zone.

Eon Climate and Renewables UK will develop up to 0.6 gigawatt in the Hastings Zone.

Eneco New Energy won the tender to develop up to 0.9 gigawatt in the West of Isle of Wight zone.

RWE Npower Renewables will install up to 1.5 gigawatts in the Bristol Channel zone.

-By Selina Williams, Dow Jones Newswires +44 207 842 9262; selina.williams@dowjones.com

(Nick Heath in London contributed to this item)
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