The government of Jersey has concluded it would be “premature” to open the British Crown Dependency’s first offshore wind leasing round.
The English Channel island’s State Assembly voted in 2024 to explore the feasibility of deploying an array off Jersey’s south-west coast.
However, a final decision must be deferred until “market conditions and access terms are clearly understood”, according to a report from the Jersey Cabinet Office.
Ministers said there remained “potential economic opportunity” for offshore wind and that developers were “curious” about the possibility of building a site in Jersey’s waters.
However, “global trends and geopolitical risk” were blamed for making conditions “not currently as favourable as they were in 2022 when this (investigative research) process began”.
The report recommended that discussions with the UK and French governments on electricity export opportunities should become “our next focus”, but conceded the pace of this workstream would be “entirely dependent on the responsiveness” of London and Paris.
It added: “Moving to a lease process will be postponed until agreement is reached on market access to a satisfactory position for Jersey followed by an agreement from decision makers to progress.”