BEIS secretary Alok Sharma has said the UK government’s recent delay on final planning decisions for two offshore wind farms totalling 4200MW was made to “allow further consideration” of environmental issues.
Development consent rulings for Orsted’s 2.4GW Hornsea 3 project off Yorkshire and Vattenfall’s 1.8GW Norfolk Vanguard development off East Anglia were due on 1 June but were pushed back by one month.
In a statement made to the House of Commons and House of Lords late last week the government said it needed extra time to consider environmental information received during consultations on developers’ plans for the wind farms.
During planning consultations stakeholders raised concerns about the impact of the projects’ turbines on seabird populations and damage to the seabed from export cables.
Last month’s delay was the third time consent rulings at both projects have been delayed.
Sharma has set a new deadline of 1 July for deciding the fate of both developments.