The UK’s Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has awarded development consent for Vattenfall’s application to build the 1.8 GW Norfolk Vanguard offshore wind farm.
”This decision justifies the confidence that we have in the offshore wind sector in Britain, and we’re looking forward to developing the project and benefiting the local community,” Gunnar Groebler , Senior Vice President for Vattenfall’s wind business, said.
”Today’s news sends a strong signal that the UK is serious about its climate ambitions and is open for business to power a green economic recovery.”
Scheduled to come online in mid-2020s, the Norfolk Vanguard wind farm will feature between 90 and 180 turbines installed across an area covering around 592 km2.
The distance of the nearest turbine from the Norfolk coast will be 47 kilometres.
BEIS postponed the deadline for the decision on the project’s Development Consent Order (DCO) twice before granting the approval.
Norfolk Vanguard’s sister project, the 1.8 GW Norfolk Boreas has also suffered delays in the consenting procedure.
The DCO examination period for this project has been pushed to 12 October.
“It’s vital that other shovel-ready renewable and low-carbon projects are also given the go-ahead as soon as possible,” Danielle Lane , Country Manager and Head of Offshore Wind for Vattenfall in the UK, said.
”Delays of even just a month or so can set back big infrastructure developments by years in some cases. The UK has to go much further, much faster, if it’s going to reach its net-zero targets.”