May 14 (splash) The Crown Estate has launched a third round of its Supply Chain Accelerator, making an additional £15m ($20.3m) in early‑stage development funding available to support UK offshore wind supply chain businesses and projects.
The programme, first established in 2024 with a £50m pool, is now entering its third and final funding round, after two rounds distributed nearly £18m across 26 organisations nationwide.
Past projects include an operations and maintenance hub in Port Talbot and a floating offshore wind test centre in Orkney.
The new round is open to UK‑wide projects, with applications accepted from today until July 3. Businesses can apply for up to 50% match funding of between £250,000 and £2m for early‑stage development work.
The timing follows continued growth in the UK’s offshore wind sector, with developers now under Agreement for Lease for up to 4.5GW of floating offshore wind capacity in the Celtic Sea.
The Crown Estate also plans Leasing Round 6 from 2027, expected to offer around 6GW or more of capacity, using its new Marine Delivery Routemap, which aims to provide long-term clarity on investment opportunities and onshore benefits.
“Our Accelerator programme, in alignment with investments from other organisations into the supply chain, is providing the financial support many early‑stage projects require to help scale up from ambition to reality,” said Julia Rose, head of offshore wind at The Crown Estate.
The Accelerator is designed to advance UK supply chain projects that align with the Industrial Growth Plan or support ports and port‑related infrastructure for offshore wind, with successful projects due to be announced by year’s end.
Great British Energy will consider co‑investing alongside The Crown Estate for projects that align with its £1bn Energy, Engineered in the UK programme.
Brazil Energy Insight 
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