East Anglia THREE is the second of our East Anglia offshore windfarm projects to be developed and part of the East Anglia Hub. Consent for the project was received on 7 August 2017 and construction commenced in July 2022.
The Project
East Anglia THREE comprises an offshore windfarm approximately 69km from the Suffolk coast and an onshore cable route to transport energy to a convertor station in Bramford. The project includes:
Offshore development
The offshore development area comprises of:
- An offshore windfarm area of approximately 305km2
- Anticipated to be up to 100 offshore wind turbines and associated foundations
- From 262m tip height of the turbines and rotor diameter of from 230m
- One offshore converter station
- Up to four subsea export cables to transmit electricity from the offshore platforms to shore
Onshore development
The onshore development area comprises of:
- Landfall at Bawdsey with onshore transition pits to join the offshore and onshore cables
- Two electrical and up to three fibre optic onshore underground cables, pulled through existing ducting laid by East Anglia ONE, running over 37 km from landfall to the connection point at Bramford
- An onshore converter station at Bramford, to connect the offshore windfarm to the existing National Grid Bramford substation
Once constructed, the windfarm would operate for up to 25 years.
Background
The East Anglia THREE project, which is wholly owned by ScottishPower Renewables, is the second of our four East Anglia projects to be developed.
Public engagement on the project began in November 2012, with a series of public consultation activities taking place between 2013 and 2015. An application for development consent was submitted to the Planning Inspectorate in November 2015.
Following application acceptance in December 2015, an examination of the project commenced in June 2016, concluding on 28 December 2016.
On 28 March 2017 the Planning Inspectorate issued a report of recommendation to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) on East Anglia THREE. The Secretary of State approved the application for consent on 7 August 2017.
In June 2019 BEIS approved a Non-Material Change to increase the overall capacity of the windfarm to 1,400 megawatts (MW).
In April 2021 BEIS approved a second Non-Material Change to reduce the number of offshore substations to one and to decrease the number of wind turbines and increase their hub height and rotor radius.
In August 2021 a third Non-Material Change was submitted to remove the maximum generating capacity of 1,400MW and to decrease the number of wind turbines and increase their height and rotor radius. The application was approved by BEIS in September 2022.
Onshore construction began in July 2022.