UK: Royal HaskoningDHV Maintains Offshore Consent Track Record

July 31, 2012

Royal HaskoningDHV has maintained its offshore consent track record when supporting the UK offshore wind farm sector, with the go-ahead granted earlier this month for the Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm (Dudgeon) project. Located some 32km off Cromer, Dudgeon will cover an area of 35 square kilometres and will generate up to 560MW of green energy; enough to power around 400,000 UK households.

As lead consultant for both the offshore and onshore Environmental Impact Assessments, Royal HaskoningDHV has spent over 6 years undertaking the necessary research, consultation and data collection to help the project move forward with limited impact to the environment.

The application for the building and operation of the offshore elements of Dudgeon was applied for in 2009 and issued on 6 July 2012 by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), in consultation with the Marine Management Organisation, which also issued the Marine Licence for the project.

Royal HaskoningDHV further supported applications for planning permissions for a buried onshore cable route running though Breckland district and North Norfolk district, which were granted in October 2010 and June 2012 respectively. Dudgeon wind farm as a whole could now be operational by late 2015 if the final consent, for an onshore substation, is granted soon.

Robert Staniland, Royal HaskoningDHV Technical Director – Offshore Wind Energy said: “The award of offshore consent represents the culmination of over six years of detailed research, extensive survey work and exhaustive consultation effort by Warwick Energy and the Royal HaskoningDHV team.

“Royal HaskoningDHV is immensely proud to have been so closely involved in the consent for another UK offshore wind farm project and is delighted that the relationship developed with Warwick Energy on the Thanet Offshore Wind Farm (consented in 2006 and, until recently, the largest operational offshore wind farm in the World) has carried over into the successful delivery of the Dudgeon project.

“The consents process has been extremely challenging for the Dudgeon development team, other developers in the Greater Wash Strategic Environmental Assessment Area, the Regulatory Authorities, their advisors and stakeholders.

“It has been just over three years since the Dudgeon application was submitted. In this time, the whole offshore wind industry has benefitted from the lessons learned regarding cumulative impact assessment and the application of the European Habitats and Birds Directives. Royal HaskoningDHV has been closely involved in this process and are now applying our knowledge across over 10GW of offshore wind farm development in UK waters.”

Mark Petterson, Dudgeon Project Director, said: “Royal Haskoning has again provided strong and professional support to Warwick Energy on a key piece of UK energy infrastructure and together we are now preparing for the construction phase of the Dudgeon project.”

The £1.5bn Dudgeon wind farm project is being developed by Dudgeon Offshore Wind Limited (DOW), a subsidiary of Warwick Energy Limited. When fully commissioned, its capacity of up to 560MW of green electricity will supply up to 400,000 homes, approximately the number of households in Norfolk. Over its 50 year life, Dudgeon is expected to save up to 40 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions and to provide around 0.5% of the UK’s annual energy needs.

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Offshore WIND staff, July 31, 2012; Image: DOW