East Suffolk Council
East Suffolk Council responds to planning consent for major offshore wind farm projects
East Suffolk Council acknowledges that The Secretary of State for the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has awarded planning consents for ScottishPower Renewables East Anglia One North and East Anglia Two Offshore Wind Farms.
The projects will contribute up to 1.7GW of renewable energy, once constructed, and help towards achieving the Government’s ambitions of 40GW of offshore wind by 2030.
East Suffolk Council will now be responsible for discharging a number of the requirements imposed on the developer via the Development Consent Orders, with the potential that the projects may commence construction in 2023.
The projects are the third and fourth to be developed in the East Anglia Zone, following East Anglia One and East Anglia Three offshore wind farms, which were consented by Government in 2014 and 2017 respectively. ScottishPower Renewables was awarded the rights to develop the East Anglia Zone as part of the Crown Estate’s Round 3 process.
The East Anglia One North and East Anglia Two projects will make landfall at Thorpeness with underground cables laid to a substation site immediately north of the village of Friston. The projects share the same onshore Order Limits and include a requirement that should the cabling associated with the projects not be installed at the same time, the first project must install the ducting for the second project concurrently with the installation of the first project’s cabling. This is one measure which has been secured to help reduce the disruption and adverse effects experienced along the cable route by the environment and local communities nearby.
Councillor Craig Rivett, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Economic Development said:
“East Suffolk Council will study the details of the decision itself and will now work with the developer, and with the affected communities to ensure that the projects are delivered in accordance with the Development Consent Orders and that the required mitigation and compensation measures are provided and implemented, in a timely manner.”