The Planning Inspectorate has accepted the Development Consent Order (DCO) application submitted by Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind for a 1.5 GW wind farm, located 33 miles off U.K.’s Lincolnshire coast.
Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind is being developed by TotalEnergies, Corio Generation and Gulf Energy Development. The DCO application includes an offshore wind farm comprising up to 100 turbines, underground cables to carry the power from the landfall site close to Anderby Marsh and a new onshore substation at Surfleet Marsh. The project will then connect into existing National Grid overhead transmission lines in the Weston Marsh area.
Following rounds of consultation, Outer Dowsing has integrated changes to their initial design such as using horizontal directional drilling to drill underneath sensitive areas, onshore cable route amendments and offshore boundary changes to mitigate navigation impacts.
“This milestone marks the culmination of three years of work and it is thanks to the experience on the team and highly engaged communities that we were able to get the project to this stage in this time frame,” says Chris Jenner, Outer Dowsing development director.
“Through our voluntary participation in the Early Adopters Program we were also able to streamline certain processes to help refine the substation design principles. We are now one step closer to building a 1.5 GW wind farm that over its lifetime could result in an injection of over £2 billion of U.K. investment alongside the creation of hundreds of local jobs. We look forward to offering full cooperation with The Planning Inspectorate throughout the upcoming examination period.”
The project will now move to the examination stage where a panel of independent inspectors will conduct the examination of the application and make a recommendation to the Secretary of State about whether the project should go ahead
