The Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has announced a landmark decision today to grant consent to three major UK offshore wind farms, totalling up to four gigawatts of new clean power capacity. Dogger Bank South East and Dogger Bank South West, off the north east coast of England, will each add 1.5GW of capacity, developed by RWE and Masdar. North Falls off the coast of Suffolk will add up to 1GW, developed by RWE and SSE Renewables.
Welcoming the news, RenewableUK’s CEO Tara Singh said:
'This is a milestone moment for the development of offshore wind in the UK. These projects will provide up to 4 gigawatts of new offshore wind capacity, equivalent to a quarter of the UK’s entire current offshore wind fleet. That’s enough to power over four million homes a year.
'These projects will draw in billions of pounds of private investment in vital new clean energy infrastructure and create hundreds of new jobs during their development, construction and operation, as well as fresh opportunities for UK supply chain companies. It’s also good news for hard-pressed billpayers, as every gigawatt of offshore wind we build pushes more expensive gas off our energy system'.
Source: RenewableUK
