Bond Dickinson’s Lawyers Secure Consent for East Anglia OWF

Bond Dickinson LLP Planning & Infrastructure lawyers have advised East Anglia offshore wind farm, a ScottishPower Renewables and Vattenfall joint-venture, on the full consenting matrix for the development of a 1.2 GW offshore wind farm in East Anglia.

Ed Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change granted consent for the development to go ahead on 17 June.

East Anglia One will be located off the Suffolk coast and feature up to 240 turbines. Construction work is anticipated to begin in 2017 with offshore work starting in 2018 and first power generation in 2019. The development is expected to support almost 2,900 jobs and bring more than £520m of investment into the economy.

Bond Dickinson’s Planning & Infrastructure Partner Jonathan Bower led the team who advised East Anglia offshore wind farm on the project assisted by Senior Counsel John Houghton and Associates Claire Rees and Charlotte Coulson on the consenting and Senior Associates Jenny Thompson and Joanna Beattie-Edwards on the land assembly.

Mr. Bower commented: “We are delighted with DECC’s decision to grant consent for the development. This is currently the world’s largest offshore renewable project to have been granted consent and today’s success is extremely rewarding to us and the team of East Anglia offshore wind farm with whom we have worked very closely. This is the first of the Crown Estate’s Round 3 projects to be consented and is a mile-stone in the renewables market as another step forward in meeting the Government’s renewables target. The complexities of the project and our understanding of the energy sector serve to demonstrate the skills that our team has in dealing with nationally significant infrastructure projects.”

When it becomes operational, East Anglia One will replace London Array, a 630 MW offshore wind farm, as the biggest offshore wind farm in the world in terms of nameplate capacity. The Bond Dickinson team successfully secured consent for London Array, which was commissioned in 2012.

This Development Consent Order represents the fitfth consent that the Planning & Infrastructure team has secured in a range of sectors including hazardous waste, biomass, offshore wind and rail. The team is also acting on the promotion of a number of other projects requiring development consent orders in the energy and transport sectors.