Triton Knoll Offshore Wind Farm will shortly begin an archaeological trial trenching programme along the full route of the 900MW wind farm’s onshore export cable corridor in Lincolnshire.
The proposed onshore export cable route is almost 60 kilometers in length and runs from the landfall location at Anderby Creek, through to Bicker Fen where the power generated by the offshore wind farm will ultimately connect into the national grid network.
The programme will also include the landfall location, the onshore substation and the intermediate electrical compound sites.
It will involve digging around 300 trenches of approximately 2m wide by 30-50m long. These pre-construction investigations do not indicate the start of onshore construction activity and are required for archaeological purposes only, Triton Knoll said.
These works are required to ensure any sensitive archaeological sites are identified and discussed with agreed statutory Heritage consultees and the Lincolnshire County Archaeologist. A specialist archaeology company will be appointed to complete the investigations.
Triton Knoll plans to carry out further pre-construction investigations and pre-construction works during the remainder of 2017. As of June 2017, the developer will start with a series of community engagement sessions.
Onshore construction is expected to start in mid-2018, subject to the final investment decision.
The Triton Knoll wind farm will be located approximately 32km off the Lincolnshire coast and 50km off the coast of North Norfolk. The wind farm is being developed as a joint venture between Innogy Renewables UK Ltd (innogy) (50%) and Statkraft (50%), with innogy managing the project on behalf of the partnership.