Decision on Equinor windfarms extension delayed

Energy secretary Claire Coutinho has delayed a decision on Equinor’s application to double its North Sea offshore wind farms.

Ministers at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) were due to decide by next Wednesday (17 January) on whether to award a development consent order (DCO) for the Norwegian energy giant’s plan to extend its Sheringham Shoal and Dudgeon wind farms.

However, in a written ministerial statement issued to the House of Commons, Coutinho revealed that she has exercised her leeway to push back this date by another three months.

She said the new deadline of 17 April for deciding this application will ensure “sufficient time for the department to consider further information and to conduct any necessary consultation”.

Equinor is proposing 719MW of new generation at the Sheringham and Dudgeon sites, which are located 15.8km and 26.5km north of the Norfolk coast, with 61 turbines that are much larger than those currently deployed at the wind farms.

The application also includes associated onshore electricity connections, the biggest element of which is the proposed installation of a new underground cable.

This is designed transmit power from the north Norfolk coast, where the sib-sea cable connection to the windfarm makes landfall, with a new purpose-built onshore substation near Norwich.

Equinor lodged an application for the wind farm extensions with the Planning Inspectorate in September 2022. The application also includes compulsory purchase orders to buy up land for the scheme.

The government has said it is keen to speed up the planning process for energy infrastructure with a new national policy statement on the verge of being officially designated.

But plans for offshore wind farms have been hotly contested across East Anglia, driven by concerns about the impact that new transmission infrastructure will have on the region’s rural landscape.

Just over a month ago, the government also shelved for a second time a decision on the DCO for Sunnica’s plans to UK’s biggest solar farm on the Suffolk/Cambridgeshire border.