ScottishPower Renewables’ Phase 4 Consultation on its East Anglia TWO and ONE North Offshore Windfarms closed at midnight on the 26th March.
The consultation saw extensive engagement with stakeholders including local Councils, residents and community groups and included 13 Public Information Days held at a range of locations across Suffolk, allowing people to discover more information on the proposals and speak to a range of technical specialists about the projects in depth.
Following the consultation, ScottishPower Renewables will be reviewing the feedback received and finalising its plans before submitting Development Consent Applications for the projects to the Government in October 2019.
David Walker, Development Director at ScottishPower Renewables, said: “We would like to thank everyone who provided feedback and attended our events throughout what has been a productive consultation period.
“We have received some 600 consultation responses, with key themes including traffic and transport, construction timetables and the impacts of our proposed substations. Every response is carefully reviewed and considered. Where possible suggestions will be taken into account and will help to shape our plans before submission.
“Our East Anglia TWO and East Anglia ONE North offshore windfarms could deliver significant economic benefits to the region, providing work for local businesses and lasting training and employment opportunities for residents. We are also looking at developing a community funding scheme to benefit the areas in which we will be working.”
Phase 4 was based on a draft Environmental Statement, which sets out the proposed infrastructure and potential environmental impacts of the projects. It provided further information on the proposals, including the Preliminary Environmental Information Report (PEIR) and the key findings of the Environmental Impact Assessment, including detailed information on traffic, flooding and landscaping.
East Anglia TWO and East Anglia ONE North combined could provide enough clean energy to power the equivalent of 1.4 million homes*, helping to meet the UK’s carbon reduction targets and tackle climate change.
The end of the consultation period follows the launch of the new joint government-industry Offshore Wind Sector Deal, which will see offshore wind reach the connected capacity of 30GW and deliver one-third of the UK’s electricity by 2030. It is also expected that the number of jobs in the industry will rise to 27,000 under the new deal, with 6,000 of these predicted to be in the East.
For further information please contact Sophie Fraser or Tom Harvey at Pier Marketing
Sophie T: 07469 244397 E: sophie@pier-marketing.com
Tom T: 07384 463501 E: tom@pier-marketing.com
Pier ScottishPower Renewables team:
Tel: 01394 646400 or E: eatwoandonenorth@pier-marketing.com
Notes to Editor
The proposed East Anglia TWO site is located in the southern North Sea approximately 31km from its nearest point onshore; the port of Lowestoft and 32km from Southwold. It would cover an area of 255km2 and up to 75 wind turbines would have an operational capacity of up to 900 megawatts which is enough to power the equivalent of 742,413 UK households*.
The proposed East Anglia ONE North site is located in the southern North Sea approximately 36km from its nearest point onshore; the port of Lowestoft and 42km from Southwold. It would cover an area of 208km2 and up to 67 wind turbines would have an operational capacity of up to 800 megawatts which is enough to power the equivalent of 659,922 UK households*.
*Equivalent number of homes powered calculated by: Number of megawatts multiplied by the number of hours in one year (8,766) multiplied by the average load factor for offshore wind (36.7% as published within the Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics), divided by the average annual household energy consumption (3,900KWH).
East Anglia TWO: 900 MW x 0.367 x 8,766 hours / 3.9MWh = 742,413 homes
East Anglia ONE North: 800 MW x 0.367 x 8,766 hours/3,9MWh = 659,922 homes
Total: 1,402,335 homes