SeaEnergy (LON:SEA) announced that its 80% subsidiary SeaEnergy Renewables Limited (SERL) has signed an Interim Development Agreement (IDA) with The Crown Estate covering certain Inch Cape wind farm development activities.
The IDA formalises the Heads of Terms agreement announced in September 2010, stating that The Crown Estate will directly invest up to £1.4 million in key surveys and reports for the Inch Cape project, which will be directly contracted and managed by SERL.
The Inch Cape site was awarded to a consortium comprised of RWE npower renewables (npower) and SERL in February 2009 as a part of the Scottish Territorial Waters leasing round conducted by The Crown Estate in association with the Scottish government.
Following the site award, the consortium entered into an exclusivity agreement with The Crown Estate to negotiate a lease deal once the Scottish government had concluded the environmental assessment process.
Npower notified SERL and The Crown Estate earlier this year of its desire to exit the Inch Cape project. This was due to the considerable size of its other onshore and offshore renewable generation commitments.
SERL has a stake in three UK offshore wind farm projects and earlier this year SeaEnergy decided to sell the business. The decision was influenced by funding challenges. It was thought to be too difficult for SeaEnergy to raise the necessary funds to take the huge wind power development forward alone. Instead it hopes to sell the business to a large power generation company.
In September, SeaEnergy said it hoped to agree a deal by the end of 2010.
Shares in the company rose 4.5 percent on today's news.