DCO decision for Norfolk Vanguard OWF quashed

The decision of the UK Secretary of State to grant the application for development consent for Vattenfall’s Norfolk Vanguard offshore wind farm has been quashed following an order issued by the High Court on 18 February.

Based on the ruling in the Norfolk Vanguard Judicial Review, the Secretary of State, which granted development consent for the project in July 2020, must now re-determine the application.

The stumbling stone for the project in the Judicial Review was the issue of cumulative impacts of the Norfolk Vanguard and Norfolk Boreas offshore wind infrastructure in Necton, where the substations for the two wind farms’ connection to the UK grid would be built, which was not taken into consideration when the development consent was granted.

The application for development consent for the 1.8 GW Norfolk Boreas is currently moving through the system. The UK Planning Inspectorate issued a Recommendation Report to the Secretary of State on 12 January, and the decision is expected to be made in a couple of months.

Responding to the ruling in the Norfolk Vanguard Judicial Review, Danielle Lane, Vattenfall’s Head of Market Development Offshore and UK Country Manager, said: “This is a very disappointing outcome, but it relates to the process for granting consent and is not about the merits of our world class Norfolk Vanguard project“.

“Planning consent was awarded in July 2020 after Vattenfall fulfilled all the requirements placed on developers. It’s vital that the Government now acts to redetermine consent, with regard to the judge’s ruling, as quickly as possible. That way we can continue to invest in the region and remain on track to begin generating low cost, renewable electricity by the late 2020s“, Danielle Lane said.