The government has announced fresh delays on the decision dates for three giant offshore wind farms being developed off the east coast of England.
Kwasi Kwarteng, minister of state for energy, announced in a written statement to the House of Commons that the dates for determining applications for the Hornsea Project Three, Norfolk Vanguard and Thanet Extension have all been pushed back.
Vattenfall is developing both the Norfolk Vanguard and Thanet Extension projects while Orsted is behind Hornsea Three.
The 2008 Planning Act stipulates that the secretary of state must make a decision on applications for nationally significant infrastructure projects within three months of receiving the report from the Planning Inspectorate.
The department for business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) announced in the run up to December’s general election that it was exercising powers under the 2008 legislation to set new deadlines for the three projects.
Following a request by Orsted on 13 December for a further six weeks in order to provide time to supply additional information about its application, Andrea Leadsom, BEIS secretary of state, has re-set the decision deadline to 1 June.
Leadsom has decided to use the same date as the new deadline for determining the Norfolk Vanguard and Thanet Extension projects.
According to Kwarteng’s statement, the delays are designed to allow further information to be provided and assessed including whether any further consultation required.
The Norfolk Vanguard Offshore Wind Farm is a 1.8GW project that would be located 47km from the Norfolk Coast, adjacent to the proposed development area for its sister project, Norfolk Boreas.
Vattenfall is also planning a 34-turbine extension to its existing Thanet wind farm, which will be capable of generating 340MW on a site approximately 8km offshore
The Hornsea Three project has a capacity of up to 2.4GW and is part of Orsted’s bigger wind farm of the same name off the coast of Norfolk, the first phase of which saw the installation of its final turbine last summer.