The Planning Inspectorate has accepted for examination the Development Consent Order (DCO) application submitted for the 1500MW Outer Dowsing offshore wind farm.
Located 54 km off the Lincolnshire coast, Outer Dowsing is being developed by TotalEnergies, Corio Generation and Gulf Energy Development.
The DCO application is for an offshore wind farm comprising up to 100 turbines, underground cables to carry the power from the landfall site close to Anderby Marsh and a new onshore substation at Surfleet Marsh.
The project will then connect into existing National Grid overhead transmission lines in the Weston Marsh area.
Following multiple rounds of consultation, Outer Dowsing has integrated many changes to the initial design such as using horizontal directional drilling to drill underneath sensitive areas, onshore cable route amendments and offshore boundary changes to mitigate navigation impacts.
Upon hearing the news, Chris Jenner, Outer Dowsing Development Director, said: “This milestone marks the culmination of three years of work and it is thanks to the experience on the team and highly engaged communities that we were able to get the project to this stage in this time frame.
“Through our voluntary participation in the Early Adopters Programme we were also able to streamline certain processes to help refine the substation design principles.
“We are now one step closer to building a 1.5GW wind farm that over its lifetime could result in an injection of over £2bn of UK investment alongside the creation of hundreds of local jobs.
“We look forward to offering full cooperation with the Planning Inspectorate throughout the upcoming examination period.”
The project will now move to the examination stage where a panel of independent inspectors will conduct the examination of the application and make a recommendation to the Secretary of State about whether the project should go ahead.
Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind will now take steps to formally notify consultees and landowners of the acceptance of the submission and how they will be able to make representations on the Application.
As part of this process, anyone can have their say about the project.