Public Notice: Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind

Notice was given in June 2023 that GTR4 Limited (trading as Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind) C/O Johnston Carmichael Llp Birchin Court, 20 Birchin Lane, London, England, EC3V 9DU (“the Applicant”)) intends to apply to the Secretary of State for a Development Consent Order (“DCO”) under section 37 of the Planning Act 2008 for the construction, operation, maintenance, and decommissioning of Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind, an offshore wind generating station located approximately 54 km east of the Lincolnshire coastline in the southern north sea, together with associated development to connect the generating station to the national grid (the “Project”).

Following the notice, the Applicant undertook consultation in accordance with the Planning Act 2008 and the Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017 in June and July 2023 (“Statutory Consultation”).

In considering responses to the Statutory Consultation, through ongoing design development, and through the Offshore Transmission Network Review process, there have been a number of changes and refinements to the Project.

To ensure that all parties with an interest in the works and/or land are consulted on these changes to the Project, the Applicant is now undertaking further statutory consultation to ensure that any persons with an interest in such changes are duly consulted with (the “Further Statutory Consultation”).

The proposed DCO would, among other things, license and authorise:

• Up to 100 offshore wind turbines and their foundations with a maximum tip height of 403m above lowest astronomical tide and a maximum rotor diameter of 340m;
• Up to two large or up to four small offshore transformer substations and their foundations within the array area;
• Up to one offshore accommodation platform and its foundations;
• Up to two offshore HVAC reactive compensation platforms and their foundations within the offshore cable route;
• A network of subsea cables connecting the wind turbines, offshore transformer substations and offshore accommodation platform;
• Up to four offshore subsea export cable circuits to bring electricity from the offshore transformer substations to landfall, located at Wolla Bank, south of Anderby Creek;
• Works at landfall to connect the offshore export cable circuits to the onshore cable circuits, crossing underneath the beach and including transition joint bays;
• Up to four underground cable circuits approximately 80 km in length, with joint bays, link boxes and/or earth pits, commencing at the landfall and running in a south westerly direction to an onshore substation in the vicinity of Surfleet Marsh/Weston Marsh;
• A new onshore substation in the vicinity of Surfleet Marsh/Weston Marsh;
• A connection into National Grid infrastructure including underground cable circuits with joint bays, link boxes and/or earth pits;
• Associated or ancillary works including archaeological and ground investigations, construction compounds, improvements and alterations to highways, verges and private access roads, construction of a temporary haul road, landscaping and drainage works;
• If required, compensatory measures in respect of the Inner Dowsing, Race Bank, and North Ridge Special Area of Conservation;
• If required, provision of offshore artificial nesting structure(s) as a compensatory measure for potential impacts in respect of special protection area(s);
• If required, the compulsory acquisition of land and/or the compulsory acquisition of permanent and/or temporary rights;
• If required, the temporary stopping up, alteration or diversion of streets;
• The application and/or disapplication of legislation including, among other things, legislation relating to compulsory purchase; and
• Such ancillary, incidental and consequential provisions, permits or consents as are necessary and/or convenient.

The Project is an Environmental Impact Assessment (“EIA”) development for the purposes of The Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017. This means that the Project constitutes development for which an EIA is required and the proposed application for a DCO will be accompanied by an Environmental Statement. The Applicant prepared Preliminary Environmental Information for the purposes of the Statutory Consultation and an Environmental Update Report has been prepared to support this Further Statutory Consultation. The documents, plans and maps showing the nature and location of the Project can be accessed free of charge from Friday 20th October 2023 until Friday 24th November 2023 at the locations and times set out below.