Public Notice: Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind Farm Development Consent Order

OUTER DOWSING OFFSHORE WIND FARM DEVELOPMENT CONSENT ORDER

REGULATION 9 OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING (APPLICATIONS: PRESCRIBED FORMS AND PROCEDURE) REGULATIONS 2009; REGULATION 16 OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING (ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT) REGULATIONS 2017

Notice is hereby given that the Planning Inspectorate (on behalf of the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero) has accepted an application made by GTR4 Limited (trading as Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind) c/o Johnston Carmichael Llp Birchin Court, 20 Birchin Lane, London, England, EC3V 9DU (“the Applicant”) for a Development Consent Order under the Planning Act 2008 (“the Application”). The Application was submitted to the Secretary of State c/o the Planning Inspectorate on 19 March 2024 and accepted for examination on 16 April 2024 (Reference EN010130).

SUMMARY OF THE PROJECT

The Application is for development consent for the construction, operation, maintenance, and decommissioning of the Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind, Farm, an offshore wind generating station located approximately 54km 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”). The offshore generating station is located in an area approximately 436km2. The onshore cable corridor is approximately 70km long from the landfall at Wolla Bank, south of Anderby Creek to a new substation at Surfleet Marsh and then to a new National Grid substation at Weston Marsh that will be consented built, owned, and operated by National Grid Electricity Transmission.

Development consent is required to the extent that the development is or forms part of a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) pursuant to section 14(1)(a) and 15(3) of the Planning Act 2008. As the proposed offshore generating station is expected to have a capacity of over 100 MW, it is an NSIP for the purposes of section 14(1)(a) and 15(3) of the Planning Act 2008. It is for this reason that the Project falls within the remit of the Secretary of State.

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 70km 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 at Surfleet Marsh;
• A new onshore substation at Surfleet Marsh;
• A connection into National Grid infrastructure at Weston Marsh 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.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT DEVELOPMENT

The proposed works are environmental impact assessment development for the purposes of the Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017 and accordingly an Environmental Statement accompanied the Application.

APPLICATION FORM AND ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTS

Copies of the Application form and accompanying plans, maps and other application documents may be inspected free of charge on the Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind Farm project page of the Planning Inspectorate’s National Infrastructure Planning website under the documents tab:

https://national-infrastructure-consenting.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/projects/EN010130/documents

The documents will be available on the Planning Inspectorate’s National Infrastructure Planning website from the start of the relevant representation period and throughout the examination period. The link to the Application documents listed on the PINS website can also be found on the Applicant’s website at https://www.outerdowsing.com/.

Hard copies of the suite of application documents can be obtained for a charge of £8,500. USBs containing these documents can be provided free of charge on request. To request hard copies or a USB, please email contact@ outerdowsing.com, or write to FREEPOST ODOW (no stamp or further address details needed on the envelope) or telephone: 0808 175 2970.

For enquiries in relation to the application form and its accompanying documents, plans and maps, the Applicant can be contacted using the contact details outlined above.

The documents may be inspected, via the Planning Inspectorate website, on computers accessible to the public, which are available at the following venues until at least the end of the relevant representation period on Thursday 13 June 2024.