Offshore wind power

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Jersey's offshore wind proposals

In October 2023, the Council of Ministers announced an intention to fully investigate the potential for an offshore wind farm that could be built in the southwest of Jersey's territorial waters. The project could offer significant environmental social and economic benefits for the Island.

The proposed wind farm, with a capacity of up to 1,000MW, would produce enough electricity to meet Jersey's needs with any extra power being exported.

In April 2024, the States Assembly agreed that:

Jersey should pursue the opportunities arising from the development of offshore wind in the south-west of its territorial waters
development of up to 1000MW should be encouraged in order to meet the needs of Islanders, power our future economy and create energy for export
the Government should bring forward appropriate policy and legislation, in 2024, to set in place a process to lease, consent, regulate and decommission a wind farm

Why offshore wind

Opportunity for Wind Power in Jersey

Sitting in the Bay of St Malo, 22 kilometres from the French coast and 137 kilometres south of the English coast, Jersey is the biggest of the Channel Islands and a British Crown Dependency. Jersey is self-governing; controls its own airspace and sea space, including access to the seabed; and has its own financial and legal systems and its own courts of law.

The Jersey opportunity is to use the island's agile governance and clear focus on promoting sustainable economic development over the long-term, to bring forward a high-quality offshore wind development, at commercial scale, within a responsive and transparent regulatory framework.

Our initial feasibility assessments have identified a development zone that can accommodate around 1000MW of installed capacity in the south-west of the island's territorial waters.

Export industries have always played an important role in the Jersey economy from shipbuilding and Jersey Royals to financial services. The island has succeeded when innovative individuals and entrepreneurial businesses are enabled by a supportive public policy environment to capitalise on available opportunities.

Benefits in Jersey for offshore wind

Offshore wind can present significant benefits for Jersey. These include:

environmental benefits: Locking in access to low carbon energy that our net zero transition requires
economic benefits: Creating a new energy export sector bringing attractive, high value jobs to the Island, and new tax revenues to support public services
strategic and social benefits: Greater energy security, greater protection from energy price volatility, and an enhanced reputation as a forward looking and ambitious jurisdiction

The key driver for a potential Jersey wind farm has not been decided upon yet, the current stage of work is exploring this.

Energy Policy

The Carbon Neutral Roadmap, Bridging Island Plan and Future Economy Programme set a policy direction consider offshore renewables for Jersey.

Carbon Neutral Roadmap

Strategic Policy 2 establishes an overall energy policy position, including that the Government will:

examine the options for utility scale renewable energy generation
ensure a diverse, safe and resilient supply of energy to meet the Island's future needs

Carbon Neutral Roadmap

Bridging Island Plan

Policy ME5 provides broad policy support for the development of utility scale offshore renewable energy proposals, where proposals provide a viable commercial case for a project of an environmentally and socially acceptable scale. It provides a framework for considering such proposals.

Island Plan

Future Economy

The Government's Future Economy Programme identified renewable energy as a potential growth enabler to address long term challenges of demographic shifts and low productivity. In addition to economic growth, other identified benefits include enhanced energy independence and potential long-term price stabilisation. Different types of renewable energy sources were analysed, and offshore wind was identified as having the best strategic fit, at present.

About the Future Economy Programme

Building on these policies, we are now in the process of:

designing and agreeing a new law to consent and regulate development of off-shore energy,
setting out the strategic options and developing the economic case for development, and
developing the process and procedure necessary to find and work with the right development partner

Through this approach, and with the agreement of the States Assembly, we aim to enable a development that can achieve excellent environmental standards, meet the needs of Islanders, and power our future economy.

Project timeline

The project has 3 phases:

phase 1: In principle support: completed April 2024
phase 2: Legal and policy framework that will be considered by the States Assembly: May 2024 to December 2025
phase 3: Leasing and consents: 2026 onwards

Project timeline

Phase 1: In principle support

Phase 1 of the project established in principle support for the project and to move to the next stage of policy development. In the first phase of the project, we published information about the feasibility and potential economic benefits of developing offshore wind. We completed this phase in April 2024 having carried out the following:

Feasibility

Feasibility work identified a suitable location for offshore wind in the southwest of Jersey's waters. The feasibility study concludes that Jersey has significant offshore wind potential within its waters and that the development and exploitation of the resource to generate low cost reliable power for the Island is technically feasible.

Initial economic analysis describes the significant potential economic opportunity an offshore windfarm could deliver for the Island.

Offshore Wind Feasibility Study

Economic analysis regarding the economic potential of offshore wind for Jersey

Proposition

In October 2023, we published a report that explained the process for early consideration of the offshore wind opportunity, and the wider context for the project.

Propositions

Consultation

We undertook a major public engagement process starting in November 2023 and which ran for 16 weeks, including public meetings, the opportunity to view visual 'mock ups', and a formal consultation survey. The consultation has now closed.

We engaged a diverse range of participants, including survey respondents, and children and young people. The consultation helped States Members understand the current views of Islanders. The consultation assessed community perspectives on the potential benefits and concerns associated with the project.

Over 70% of respondents were positive about the concept of offshore wind. While there was significant support for renewable energy initiatives like offshore wind, valid concerns were also raised about environmental and visual impacts, economic viability, and the project risks. We will consider these further as the project progresses.

We published results of the Offshore Wind consultation in March 2024, and can be found in the Offshore wind consultation report 2024.

States Assembly debate

In April 2024 the States Assembly debate raised several important issues, including the importance of ensuring environmental impacts and potential mitigations are understood before development consent is granted. We will consider these issues in phase 2 of the project.

The States Assembly voted, by a margin of 40:1 to support the following policy:

that Jersey should pursue the opportunities arising from the development of an offshore wind farm in the south west of its territorial waters
that development of up to around 1000MW in provision should be encouraged in order to meet the needs of Islanders, to power the Island's future economy and to create energy for export
to request the Council of Ministers to bring forward appropriate policy and legislation before the end of 2024 to set in place a process to lease, provide consent for, regulate and safely decommission a wind farm

See all of the Propositions comments submitted prior to the debate and the full voting record from the debate.

Phase 2: Legal and policy framework

May 2024 to December 2025

In phase 2 of the project we will focus on:

the policy and legislation needed to support any decision to develop offshore wind
ensuring any such development will be economically viable, safe and effective, and
developing a leasing process which ensures that the best value outcomes are secured for Islanders

Setting the legal requirements

Draft legislation will propose requirements for consenting, construction and decommissioning of an offshore windfarm. It will include provisions to ensure the environmental impacts of an offshore wind farm, are identified, considered and mitigated at an early stage.

Preparing the new law is a vital part of the project and will be subject to scrutiny and stakeholder consultation at key points.

Setting the policy for a formal leasing process

We will establish the process of allocating rights to develop the seabed. Once agreed, a leasing process will select a development partner for the project. In order to choose the right partner, the Government will need to be clear what it is seeking from this relationship on behalf of Islanders.

By the end of 2025, Ministers will return to the States Assembly to set out and seek support for their approach, before opening a formal leasing process.

We are undertaking a wide range of policy research which will be published ahead of a debate. As these reports are completed, we will add links to the evidence base section of this page.

Designing a leasing process that extracts best value for the Island

The Leasing Process details the commercial approach, optimised to achieve the strategic objectives which best serve Islanders. The leasing process will culminate in a comprehensive lease agreement which may address issues such as:

arrangements to assure the performance of a developer, including decommissioning
agreements about physical or commercial access to power
the scale and nature of any fees, taxes or rents to be paid
controls or procedures for onward sale of the wind farm or key assets
opportunities for Islanders or the Government to participate in the project

Legislation, policy and process will be brought together in a report and proposition to the States Assembly before the project may move to Phase 3.

Phase 3: Leasing and consent

2026 onwards

If the States Assembly agrees to move forward, a leasing process would follow. If a developer is selected, the Government would expect to negotiate an initial, time-limited lease to allow the developer to access and study the potential site, including recording environmental monitoring and other data.

Once ready, the developer would submit an application for consent under the new law outlined above. That application would be considered as the law requires and, if granted, development would then begin.

Developing a large infrastructure project takes time and may take in the range of 7 years from the start of a leasing process.

How to get involved

Opportunities

This section sets out opportunities for you to engage in the second phase of the project.

Public engagement

The issue of offshore wind has already been considered in formal engagement and consultation exercises, such as the 2019 Bridging Island Plan Strategic Issues and Options Consultation, and the 2021 Citizens Assembly on Climate Change.

From November 2023 to February 2024 government undertook a wide-ranging public consultation and engagement phase that attracted nearly 1,000 individual responses and that provides insight into Islanders views on the project. This information will continue to be used to inform the project in phase 2.

Our approach to further public engagement will continue to follow the Government Engagement Framework, a good practice guide to engaging islanders in policy development.

We will provide regular updates and information about the project on this page. This will allow Islanders to stay informed about progress and also access technical evidence that they may wish to use to support their own research and engagement. This approach has already started and will continue through the project.

There will also be opportunity to engage with the work of the Offshore Wind Scrutiny Review Panel.

Industry engagement

Sharing up to date and anticipatory technical and industry information is valuable in informing the development of policy, legislation and processes which create mutually beneficial opportunity for Islanders and industry.

Some initial industry discussions were held in the first phase, where these were requested. In phase 2, more formal conversations with industry will assist industry in understanding the project and sharing views on key aspects. This information will inform the government's assessment of how to proceed.

We remain open to hearing from any interested parties, particularly in areas such as:

wind power industry trends, engineering, delivery, regulation and commercial arrangements
wider electricity and energy systems trends
investment financing trends, options, risks and opportunities, including innovative ways to secure the optimum benefits for Jersey

States Assembly engagement

The States Assembly will be regularly involved throughout this phase of the project and holds the final say on the development of new legislation and the decision to open a leasing process. The procedures for public and government engagement with the States Assembly are set out in Standing Orders, and will be supplemented at key points by additional briefings for States Members where these are helpful.

States Assembly

The Environment, Housing and Infrastructure; and Economic and International Affairs Scrutiny Panels have established that a dedicated Offshore Wind Scrutiny Review Panel, and ministers have confirmed that they wish the panel to have close and on-going engagement from the project team.

Information on the scrutiny review panel is published on the States Assembly website.

International engagement

An on-going programme of international engagement will continue throughout phase 2. A multi-lateral working party with authorities in France and Guernsey has been established. Ongoing discussions with other Crown Dependencies, UK and devolved nations governments, and other European partners are also under way. This work is critical to understanding the basis upon which a Jersey Wind Farm can access international energy markets and exploring the best opportunities to export power.

Evidence and reports

Feasibility study

This report provides:

a general introduction to offshore wind technology, environmental considerations and project economics, including summarising the current characteristics and trends of the offshore wind sector's technology and costs
an overview of the general characteristics of sites within Jersey's waters
a high-level analysis of strategic options for developing offshore wind in Jersey, followed by an assessment of the more promising project cases
the process of site selection and the approach being taken in many countries of assigning zones for the potential development of offshore wind based on a range of criteria
background to the positive benefits that are likely to be realised from the development of offshore wind in Jersey

Whilst the report does not set out to provide a detailed assessment of the socio-economic benefits, it highlights the areas that have the potential to provide an upside to the Island's economy and community.

Offshore Wind Feasibility Study

Economic analysis

This report summarises the reasons why offshore wind appears to have the greatest potential for Jersey from an economic and societal perspective, compared to other renewable energy technologies.

Economic analysis regarding the economic potential of offshore wind for Jersey

A major public engagement process began in November 2023 and ran for 16 weeks, including public meetings, the opportunity to view visual 'mock ups', and a formal consultation survey.

Offshore Wind consultation

The results of the consultation were published in March 2024.

Offshore wind consultation report 2024

Proposition and scrutiny comments

All comments relating to the proposition are provided on the States Assembly website propositions section P.82/2023

In September 2024 a dedicated Offshore Wind Review Scrutiny Panel was established to look into the Government's proposals for an offshore wind farm in Jersey waters.

Offshore Wind Review Panel

Propositions

Supporting reports

Carbon Neutral Roadmap sets out a series of policies and actions to work towards net zero by 2050, including strategic policy 2 on energy security.

Bridging Island Plan sets out the spatial planning policies for the Island, including provision for renewable energy installations.

Future Economy Programme identifies economic challenges and opportunities including the potential future economic benefits of offshore wind.

Communications

Communications made in 2024

Wind Farm consultation extended

Link to letter sent by the Minister for the Environment to the Environment, Housing and infrastructure scrutiny panel in response to comments submitted prior to the P82/2023 debate.

Minister of the Environment Panel's comments on P.82/2023

Link to letter sent by the Minister for Sustainable Economic Development to the Economic and International Affairs scrutiny panel in response to comments submitted prior to the P82/2023 debate.

Minister for Sustainable Economic Development to the Economic and International Affairs scrutiny panel comments on P.82/2023