SeaEnergy’s SERL agrees heads of terms to progress Inch Cape wind farm development

SeaEnergy PLC (LON:SEA) announced that its 80 percent owned subsidiary SeaEnergy Renewables Ltd (SERL) has agreed Heads of Terms with The Crown Estate for the funding of certain Inch Cape offshore wind farm development activities.
Under the agreement, The Crown Estate will directly invest up to £1.4 million in key surveys and reports, including scoping reports, geophysical surveys and bird and mammal surveys, which will be directly contracted and managed by SERL.  The Crown Estate and SERL will now seek to finalise a formal development agreement in respect of these arrangements.
Investors liked the news, sending SeaEnergy up 6.6 percent in early trade.

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 CEO Joel Staadecker said: "We are delighted that The Crown Estate shares our commitment to the Inch Cape offshore wind farm and look forward to concluding the formal development agreement."
SeaEnergy is currently marketing its stake in SERL, after a re-evaluation earlier this year of its strategy and a decision to focus the business on the wind-farm servicing business, rather than developing wind-farms itself. In June, in its final results statement, SeaEnergy announced the plan to concentrate on marine services for the offshore wind power industry, after an assessment of the equity markets, investor sentiment and the funding environment.

In July, the company hired Ernst & Young’s Renewable Energy arm as an adviser to coordinate the sale of its 80 percent-interest in SERL.
In August, SeaEnergy took what it called an “important step closer” to launching its marine services business for the offshore wind-power industry, with the signing of an exclusivity agreement to secure use of ship-based self stabilizing platforms from Ampelmann - a Dutch marine engineering group.