Public notice: Orsted Hornsea Project Four Limited

NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO MAKE A NON-MATERIAL CHANGE TO THE FOLLOWING DEVELOPMENT CONSENT ORDER:

THE HORNSEA FOUR OFFSHORE WIND FARM ORDER 2023 (SI 2023/800) AS CORRECTED BY THE HORNSEA FOUR OFFSHORE WIND FARM (CORRECTION) ORDER 2024 (SI 2024/117) AND AS AMENDED BY THE HORNSEA FOUR OFFSHORE WIND FARM (AMENDMENT) ORDER 2024 (SI 2024/800)

Notice is hereby given that an application has been made by Orsted Hornsea Project Four Limited (company number 08584182) of 5 Howick Place, London, England, SW1P 1WG (the “Applicant”) to the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero to make a non-material change to the Hornsea Four Offshore Wind Farm Order 2023 (as corrected by the Hornsea Four Offshore Wind Farm (Correction) Order 2024) and as amended by the Hornsea Four Offshore Wind Farm (Amendment) Order 2024) (the “Amended Order”) under the Planning Act 2008 (the “NMC Application”).

The Amended Order includes provision authorising the construction, operation, maintenance and decommissioning of the Hornsea Project Four offshore wind farm together with associated offshore and onshore infrastructure and all associated development (“Hornsea Four”), on land approximately 69 kilometres from the East Riding of Yorkshire in the Southern North Sea, covering an area of approximately 470 square kilometres. Hornsea Four comprises the following key elements: up to 180 wind turbine generators; offshore transformer substations; offshore convertor substations (High Voltage Direct Current system only); up to one offshore accommodation platform to house operations and maintenance staff; booster stations (High Voltage Alternating Current system only); subsea inter-array cables linking wind turbines to each other and to offshore substations; subsea interconnector cables linking the offshore substations to one another; subsea export cables to connect the wind farm to landfall; and cable protection.

The Amended Order requires the Applicant to submit and base the Guillemot Compensation Implementation and Monitoring Plan (“GCIMP”) on the strategy for guillemot compensation set out in the guillemot and razorbill compensation plan and include, for the bycatch reduction measure, details of the arrangements with fishers to use bycatch reduction technology and associated provisions. Thereafter, the Applicant must enter into the contracts with fishers for the bycatch reduction technology as set out in the approved GCIMP. Certain numbered works authorised by the Amended Order cannot commence until at least one year has lapsed after the contracts with fishers have been entered into.

The Applicant proposes, via the NMC Application, to remove the requirements in Part 3 of Schedule 16 to the Amended Order relating to carrying out bycatch reduction through contracts with fishers, as described above. Principally, this is because, as supporting evidence demonstrates, the required guillemot compensation can be delivered via predator eradication only.

The Applicant therefore intends to fulfil the compensation requirements for guillemot solely via the predator eradication measures, which will deliver at least 160% of the compensation requirement for guillemots, therefore comfortably meeting the requirements of Hornsea Four. Given the two measures of predator eradication and bycatch reduction were considered as a package of compensation in the Applicant’s guillemot and razorbill compensation plan, to be scaled up or scaled down as appropriate, the Applicant proposes to “scale down” the bycatch reduction measure to zero. The Applicant will keep the bycatch reduction measure as one of a range of adaptive management measures for future consideration, rather than as primary compensation

A copy of the NMC Application and its accompanying documents are available for inspection, free of charge, via the Planning Inspectorate’s website at the below address until at least the end of the consultation period referred to below:

Planning Inspectorate website (documents tab):

https://national-infrastructure-consenting.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/projects/EN010098/documents

If you require a hard copy of the NMC Application and its accompanying documents (for example because you do not have access to a computer and are unable to view the documents on PINS’ website), you can request hard copies by contacting the Applicant at HornseaProjectFour@orsted.com or on: +447787695045. Each hard copy is available at the cost of £20 per copy.

Any representation about the NMC Application must be made by email to: HornseaProjectFour@planninginspectorate.gov.uk, or in writing to: National Infrastructure Planning, the Planning Inspectorate, Temple Quay House, 2 The Square, Bristol, BS1 6PN.

Please quote reference EN010098 on any correspondence. Consultation responses will be published on the relevant project page of the National Infrastructure Planning website.

Please note that representations must be received by the Planning Inspectorate by 11.59pm on 24 March 2025.

ORSTED HORNSEA PROJECT FOUR LIMITED 13 February 2025