Engineering news
Planning consent has been given for the next stage of the World's largest offshore wind farm in the North Sea.
Dogger Bank Teesside A and B offshore wind project – which will be located between 125km and 290km off the North East coast – will include up to 400 wind turbines across two offshore wind generating stations, each with an installed capacity of up to 1.2GW.
The onshore elements of the development are to be located in Redcar and Cleveland, the project could support hundreds of jobs in the North East and has the potential to generate enough green electricity to power up to 1.8 million British homes.
The project is being taken forward by Forewind – a consortium comprising SSE, RWE, Statkraft and Statoil.
Dogger Bank Teesside A and B could create up to 4,750 new direct and indirect full time equivalent jobs and generate more than £1.5 billion for the UK economy, with the majority of opportunities in the North East and Yorkshire and the Humber regions.
Forewind general manager, Tarald Gjerde, said: “It represents a real opportunity for the UK to receive even more of its energy from its abundant wind resource while creating significant economic benefits, particularly for the North East.
“These local regions are well positioned to take advantage of the many supply chain and employment opportunities, due to both their geographical proximity to the development as well as their industrial and marine heritage, with existing skills in large-scale production activities and a history of offshore support,” he added.
The announcement comes at an uncertain time for the renewable energy industry following a series of government announcements about reductions in financial support in other parts of the sector. The government has postponed the next round of auctions for Contracts for Difference, which provide financial support for renewable projects, until the spring. Greater clarity on the government’s plans for this support system are expected in the autumn.
RenewableUK’s chief executive, Maria McCaffery, said: “This awe-inspiring offshore wind project has taken another significant step forward. The sheer size of Dogger Bank illustrates just how large the environmental and economic opportunities are in the North Sea for the UK’s world-leading offshore wind industry.
“However, the ambition of the industry needs to be matched by a vision from government which is backed up by firm commitments on the levels of financial provision which will be available. We need to know that the political appetite exists to ensure that major infrastructure projects like this will gain the right level of support from ministers – they hold the keys to unlocking the vast potential of the North Sea’s clean energy resources. The industry is set to play its part – but it needs a fair wind from Westminster in order to do so.”
The Teesside project is equal in size to the world’s largest previously consented project, Dogger Bank Creyke Bank (also up to 2.4GW) situated alongside it, which gained consent in February 2015.