World's biggest offshore consent granted

UK: The UK government has approved the 1.2GW East Anglia One offshore wind farm off England's east coast, making it the largest offshore project in the world to gain consent.

by Patrick Smith 17 June 2014

A met mast has been in place at the project since last August

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) has given the go ahead for construction of the project, being developed by a joint venture between Vattenfall and Iberdrola's UK subsidiary, Scottish Power Renewables. This follows a positive recommendation from the UK's consenting body, the Planning Inspectorate.

Construction of the projects is expected to start in 2017 with the offshore installation commencing in 2018. Commissioning is set for 2019.

A turbine supplier has not yet been named, but the consent allows for up to 240 turbines to be installed at the site, which, considering the total capacity of 1.2GW, would mean a minimum nameplate capacity of 5MW per turbine.

"The East Anglia One offshore wind farm that is expected to support almost 2,900 jobs and bring over £520 million pounds ($873 million) of investment into the UK's economy has today been given consent from the government to go ahead," Decc said in a statement.