Plans to build an offshore windfarm which will connect to the grid in South Holland have taken a step forward.
The Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind farm has had a development consent order accepted by central government.
Ministers will now commission an independent report that will advise the Secretary of State on whether to grant permission for the development.
It will comprise of up to 100 turbines 85 miles into the North Sea with underground cables sending the electricity to a substation at Surfleet Marsh which will connect to the existing National Grid overhead lines in the Weston Marsh area.
A spokesman for the project beig developed by Total Energies, Corio Generation and Gulf Energy Development, said: “Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind will now take steps to formally notify consultees and landowners of the acceptance of the submission and how they will be able to make representations on the application.”
Chris Jenner, Outer Dowsing Development Director said: “This milestone marks the culmination of three years of work and it is thanks to the experience of the team and highly engaged communities that we were able to get the project to this stage in this time frame.
“We were also able to streamline certain processes to help refine the substation design principles.
“We are now one step closer to building a 1.5 GW wind farm that over its lifetime could result in an injection of over £2 billion of UK investment alongside the creation of hundreds of local jobs.”
A new consultation is now open for the ‘pre-examination’ stage.
Anybody can respond but will have to register with the government at https://national-infrastructure-consenting.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/projects/EN010130
