North Falls Offshore Wind Farm Public Notice

Notice is hereby given that North Falls Offshore Wind Farm Limited (company number 12435947) with registered office at Windmill Hill Business Park, Whitehill Way, Swindon, Wiltshire SN5 6PB (the “Applicant”) intends to make an application to the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero under Section 37 of the Planning Act 2008 for development consent (the “Application”) for North Falls Offshore Wind Farm (“North Falls”).

North Falls is a nationally significant infrastructure project being developed in an equal joint venture partnership by SSE Renewables and RWE, via the Applicant company. North Falls is a proposed offshore wind farm located in the southern North Sea, approximately 20 kilometres from the East Anglia coast at its nearest point. An offer has been accepted from National Grid for an onshore grid connection in Tendring, North Essex, approximately 24 kilometres from the coast near Frinton-on-Sea, the likely landfall location for that connection option. North Falls is set to support the UK’s target of 50GW of installed offshore wind capacity by 2030. North Falls comprises:

• Up to 72 offshore wind turbine generators
• Up to two offshore substation platforms
• Platform interconnector cables
• Inter-array cables
• Three options for transmission infrastructure:

  Option 1: Onshore electrical connection at a National Grid connection point within Tendring, Essex, with a project alone onshore cable route and onshore substation infrastructure;

  Option 2: Onshore electrical connection at a National Grid connection point within Tendring, Essex, sharing all or part of an onshore cable route with separate onshore export cables with another project (such as Five Estuaries) where practicable, or

  Option 3: Offshore electrical connection supplied by a third-party electricity network provider. Such a connection will potentially be identified through the Offshore Transmission Network Review (OTNR) process.

  It is anticipated the proposed development consent order (DCO) will, among other things, authorise:

• The construction, operation and maintenance and decommissioning of an offshore wind generating station and its associated infrastructure
• The compulsory acquisition of land including rights in or over land and imposition of restrictions, powers to override suspend or extinguish rights over land and the temporary use of land
• The application, modification and/or disapplication of legislation relevant to the Project including that relating to the compulsory acquisition of land, and
• Such ancillary, incidental and consequential provisions, licences, property rights, permits and consents as are necessary and/or convenient.

As North Falls is an offshore generating station with a proposed capacity of more than 100MW it is classified as a nationally significant infrastructure project under s15(3) Planning Act 2008. North Falls is an environmental impact assessment (EIA) development as defined in the Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017. Therefore, the Applicant is making preliminary environmental information available and the proposed application for a DCO will be accompanied by an Environmental Statement.

From the start of the statutory consultation on 16 May 2023, the North Falls Preliminary Environmental Information Report (PEIR), a non-technical summary (NTS) providing an overview of the proposals, consultation booklet and other documents, plans and maps showing the nature and location of the project will be available to view and download free of charge via the consultation portal (www.stat.northfallsoffshore.com). The consultation portal can also be accessed from the website (www.northfallsoffshore. com).

The documents, plans and maps will all be available online for at least the duration of the statutory consultation period ending at 11.59pm on 14 July 2023. Alternatively, copies of the documents can be requested by calling 0800 254 5340 or by emailing contact@ northfallsoffshore.com. These contact details can also be used for any enquiries relating to the documents, plans and maps accompanying this consultation.

Electronic copies of the documents on a USB stick can be requested free of charge along with paper copies of the NTS, consultation booklet and previously published statement of community consultation (SoCC). However due to the size of the PEIR, a charge of £3500 would be applied for a paper copy, to cover the production costs. Paper copies of all the consultation documents – including the PEIR – will be available to view at the following drop-in consultation events: