BEIS Okays Bigger Turbines at East Anglia THREE

ScottishPower Renewables has received planning approval from the UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Greg Clark MP, for the East Anglia THREE offshore wind farm with an output capacity of up to 1,200MW.

The planning consent will allow for the installation of larger and more efficient ‘next generation’ turbines, up to a tip height of 247 metres, the developer said, adding that the next generation technology will help to ensure that offshore wind is one of the cheapest forms of low carbon electricity.

ScottishPower Renewables will now commence work on preparing the project for the next phase.

The regulatory framework in the UK requires that offshore wind farm developers enter pre-qualified projects into a Contracts for Difference (CfD) auction process, where the most economic projects are selected to receive a contract. If successful in future CfD auctions, ScottishPower Renewables would like to see construction starting around 2022, with the project up and running by 2025.

East Anglia THREE will cover an area of up to 305 square kilometres and will require up to 172 wind turbines to build the full capacity.

Will Apps, Head of Energy Development at The Crown Estate, said: “It is great to see the East Anglia THREE project pass this significant milestone. Through the continued efforts of ScottishPower Renewables, and their industry peers, the UK now benefits from a strong development pipeline of more than 11GW of consented capacity. This is in addition to the projects that are already built or are on track to supply 10% of the UK’s electricity demand by 2020.”

In total, East Anglia THREE will require up to four offshore collector stations and up to two offshore converter station platforms; up to one offshore platform housing accommodation facilities; subsea inter-array cables between the wind turbines and converter station and collector station platforms; up to four subsea export cables to transmit electricity from the offshore platforms to shore; up to four interconnector cables between the East Anglia ONE and East Anglia THREE Projects; landfall at Bawdsey with onshore transition pits to join the offshore and onshore cables; up to four onshore underground cables pulled through existing ducting to be laid by East Anglia ONE, running for approximately 37 km from landfall to the connection point at Bramford, Suffolk, with jointing pits, to transmit electricity to a new onshore transformer substation; and an onshore transformer substation at Bramford, Suffolk, to connect the offshore wind farm to the National Grid.

ScottishPower Renewables is currently delivering the East Anglia ONE project, which has a capacity of 714 MW and is due to be fully operational in 2020. The company is developing four projects in total in the area, with a capacity of 3,500 MW.