As the fishing boat motors gently out of Newlyn’s harbour, the sky is clear and the sea is millpond-flat. Below the surface, the clear waters are teeming with life; Newlyn, in south-west Cornwall, is home to one of Britain’s largest trawler fleets, with more than 100 boats regularly landing catches. However, miles out to sea, a storm is brewing.
The boats’ fishing ground could end up being squeezed by floating windfarms planned for the Celtic Sea, an area of the Atlantic bordered by Cornwall, south-west Wales, southern Ireland and the north-western edge of France. In July, the crown estate – the Queen’s property manager and owner of the seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland – announced that five sites in the Celtic Sea could host offshore installations that could deliver four gigawatts of wind energy by 2035. Up to 300 turbines would power nearly 4m homes, and generate income for the crown and the Treasury.
