Hornsea Project One offshore wind farm consented

This morning the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change made the Development Consent Order, granting consent to Hornsea Project One. 

Developed by SMart Wind, a joint venture between Mainstream Renewable Power and Siemens Project Ventures, and owned jointly with Dong Energy, this 1.2 GW project will be one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world. Located over 100 km off the Yorkshire coast, the turbine array will cover an area of 407 km2. Marine cables will make landfall at Horseshoe Point, south of Grimsby in Lincolnshire. The 40 km onshore cable route will connect to National Grid’s North Killingholme substation in north Lincolnshire, via the project’s HVDC converter/HVAC substation.

RPS has supported SMart Wind in the offshore and onshore environmental assessment; from onshore cable routing decisions and choices on location of converter/substations, through negotiations with statutory and non-statutory consultees and public consultation, to the preparation of two consultation rounds on draft environmental statements. The offshore and onshore technical consultancy and report authorship provided by RPS included the comprehensive range of marine and terrestrial, biological and human environmental topics.

During the Examination, RPS further supported SMart Wind, providing responses to the Examining Authority’s questions, additional documents, input into the Development Consent Order and expert witnesses.

The detailed design of the project will be finalised and implemented in accordance with the requirements of the DCO. Project One is scheduled to commence operation by 2020, when it will become the world’s first gigawatt scale wind farm far from shore.