The UK government has introduced updated planning guidance that does not require developers to provide financial compensation for wake effects from new offshore wind farms.
Energy department DESNZ said the revised National Policy Statement placed an expectation on the backers of projects seeking planning permission to “demonstrate reasonable efforts to mitigate” potential yield losses on neighbouring developments instead.
However, developers will need to carry out wake assessments as part of the consenting process and “take a good neighbour approach”, according to the government’s response to a consultation held earlier this year on proposals for the NPS update.
Officials said references to physical mitigation measures had not been included in the updated policy as they would not be “practical without reducing the output of a proposed offshore wind farm”.
They added that calls for fixed distances between wind farms had also been rejected as “understanding of wake effects is still developing”.
“The government maintains that wake effects are a commercial matter to be resolved between developers and the planning system is not expected to adjudicate on compensation arrangements,” said DESNZ.
The launch of the consultation followed a pledge by ministers in the Clean Power Action Plan last December to help prevent stand-offs over wake effects following a spike in the number of disagreements over approximately 10GW of offshore capacity that was in planning.