The crown estate will auction off rights to new wind projects, with 25 per cent of the profits going to the Queen

The Queen is in line to benefit by hundreds of millions of pounds from the expansion of offshore wind farms around England and Wales.

An auction of rights to establish a new generation of wind projects will be opened this month by the Crown Estate, which manages the seabed around much of the coastline. The move will allow up to 7GW of electricity generation capacity to be created, enough to meet the needs of more than six million homes.

Profits from the Crown Estate go directly to the Treasury but the Queen receives a 25 per cent share through the sovereign grant, the annual payment to fund the monarchy that was introduced in 2012 by George Osborne when chancellor to replace the civil list, which