Green light for 1.8GW Hornsea 2

UK energy secretary Greg Clark has given planning permission to Dong Energy’s 1.8GW Hornsea 2 offshore wind farm in the North Sea.

The Round 3 project will feature up to 300 turbines some 90km off the East Riding of Yorkshire and will connect to the grid at North Killingholme in Lincolnshire.

Hornsea 2 will be the world’s biggest offshore wind farm when built.

The government said the £6bn project would create up to 1960 construction and 580 operational and maintenance jobs.

The project is the second in the Hornsea zone to be given the go-ahead, with Dong having made a final investment decision in February to build the 1.2GW Hornsea 1 offshore wind farm.

The original 16 June deadline for Hornsea 2 had been pushed back by two extra months in order to gather additional information on potential impacts of the project on porpoises.

Planning officials filed a recommendation to ministers on 16 March this year.

The approval covers the entire project including the turbines, foundations, offshore and onshore substations, array cables and export cables, Dong said.

Dong Energy UK country chairman Brent Cheshire said: “Development consent for Hornsea 2 is very welcome.

“We have already invested £6bn in the UK, and Hornsea 2 provides us with another exciting development opportunity in offshore wind.

“A project of this size will help in our efforts to continue reducing the cost of electricity from offshore wind and shows our commitment to investing in the UK.”

Clark said: “The UK’s offshore wind industry has grown at an extraordinary rate over the last few years, and is a fundamental part of our plans to build a clean, affordable, secure energy system.”

However, the RSPB said it is “deeply concerned” by the decision to approve the project because it will lead to the “unnecessary death of hundreds of globally important seabirds”.

The bird charity said it supports offshore wind energy in general, but opposed Hornsea 2 as it poses an “unacceptably high risk to seabirds that nest on the Yorkshire coast”.

It said the project would be directly in the flight path of two threatened species – gannets and kittiwakes.

“This wind farm, in combination with other offshore wind farms in the North Sea, pose an unacceptable level of threat to these species as well as potential effects for guillemots, razorbills and puffins,” RSPB said.

RSPB head of reserves and protected areas Gwyn Williams said: “We have looked at the plans, and tried to work with the developer, but do not feel the ecological mitigation measures proposed are in any way adequate.

“We are now even more concerned for the future of the Flamborough to Filey seabirds if the developers of the Hornsea zone bring forward their next two phases.”

Image: Dong Energy