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UK's Crown Estate Profit Falls on Lower Fees From Offshore Wind Leases

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UK's Crown Estate, which owns and earns from land holdings across the country, reported a decline in annual operating profit for the year ended March 31 to 1.2 billion British pounds ($1.6 billion), down from 1.4 billion pounds, due to reduced option fees from offshore wind leases, it said Thursday.

There are now 36 wind farms within its marine portfolio and 13 gigawatts of grid-connected wind generation, up by 1 GW from the end of March 2025. It has a current and potential pipeline of offshore wind capacity of 56 GW, up from 50 GW a year prior.

Crown Estate said that profit growth was driven by good wind conditions, newly-connected offshore wind and expansion across other marine activities.

Income from operational windfarms increased 20% to 117 million pounds. The first two projects under the Round 4 leasing program, have begun construction. Income from Round 4 option fees fell to 875 million, down from almost 1.1 billion year on year.

Three Round 5 projects have obtained rights to build floating wind generation in the Celtic Sea and a forthcoming Round 6 could add up to 6 GW of capacity.

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