BEIS secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has told the offshore wind industry the UK Government is evaluating changes to the current planning regime to de-risk the consenting process.
Kwarteng made the comments during Thursday’s Scottish Renewables Offshore Wind 2021 conference, when asked about recent delays which have hit projects in the UK.
“You’re right to raise planning concerns because this is something which could, and I stress could, hit progress,” the minister told delegates.
“I am working very closely with colleagues to see if we can quicken it [the consenting process],” he added.
Recent delays have pushed back final approval dates for ScottishPower Renewables’ 800MW East Anglia One North and 900MW East Anglia Two project’s, while the consenting timelines for Vattenfall’s 3.6GW Norfolk Projects is currently unclear.
Kwarteng said the offshore wind industry has seen success “far more quickly than was expected ten years ago” and that the rapid rollout for projects has “created some concerns” among groups that now oppose new developments.
The minister also highlighted the ongoing Offshore Transmission Network Review as something that could streamline the buildout of projects as the country looks to hit its end-decade deployment target of 40GW offshore wind.
“Having everything land point-to-point will require a lot of infrastructure and could lead to a great deal of disruption…we need to have some kind of network in the North Sea where we can link projects to one, two or a very small number of points,” he added.
The minister meanwhile told delegates the timeframe for this year’s CfD4 auction “could slip” but said Whitehall “remains focused on the end of the year” as a launch date for the round.
“We are hoping to confirm the details very soon,” he added.