The UK Government's Planning Inspectorate on Thursday, December 31, 2020, gave its development consent for Ørsted's proposed Hornsea Project Three offshore wind farm.
The Hornsea Project Three offshore wind farm offers a capacity of up to 2,4 GW and is located off the coast of Norfolk.
This is within the area known as Zone 4, under the Round 3 offshore wind licensing arrangements established by The Crown Estate.
The application was submitted for consideration on May 14, 2018, and accepted for examination on 8 June 2018. It is the 98 project to be decided under the Planning Act 2008 regime and is the 61st energy project examined by the Planning Inspectorate to gain development consent.
The Planning Inspectorate’s Chief Executive, Sarah Richards, said: "When examining the application and making their Recommendation, the Examining Authority took full account of views from communities, particularly those near the North East coast of England who might be affected by this proposal, alongside national policy and evidence of the need for the project."
According to a document released by the Planning Inspectorate, at the time of Examination, the Development would comprise:
- an electrical capacity above 100 MW and up to 2.4 GW;
- up to 300 wind turbines
- up to three offshore accommodation platforms;
- up to twelve offshore transformer substations;
- up to four offshore High Voltage Direct Current (“HVDC”) converter substations, or up to six
subsea offshore High Voltage Alternating Current (“HVAC”) booster stations and up to four
surface offshore HVAC booster stations;
- subsea inter-array electrical circuits;
- a marine connection to shore;
- a foreshore connection;
- an onshore connection to an onshore substation; and
- the connection to National Grid’s existing Norwich Main substation.