Offshore wind is an important contributor to global energy generation, and many countries are running offshore wind farm tenders or are planning to do so. Although interest in new developing new capacity has been cooling recently in the face of higher long-term interest rates and potential supply chain concerns, offshore wind is still expected to grow strongly over the coming years.

We have taken a step back to look at the design of the processes used for allocating offshore wind farm permits. In this paper we discusse two key questions. First, what are the relative merits of running separate tenders for subsidiese and access to the seabed? And second, why don’t we see more open auctions in this sector?