Consent Variation Awarded

In April 2021, the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) approved a second Non-Material Change to the development consent for the East Anglia THREE offshore wind project. This consent variation specifically reduced the number of offshore substations to one and altered the turbine design envelope by decreasing the number of turbines while increasing their hub height and rotor radius. The change followed the original consent granted in August 2017 and an earlier Non-Material Change approved in June 2019, which had increased the project’s overall capacity to 1,400 MW. The second Non-Material Change reflects ScottishPower Renewables’ ongoing optimisation of the East Anglia THREE project as part of the wider East Anglia Hub, ensuring the layout and technology remain aligned with current turbine capabilities and design practices. By consolidating to a single offshore converter station and revising turbine parameters, the project can potentially improve efficiency and reduce some aspects of offshore infrastructure complexity while maintaining its strategic role in delivering large-scale offshore wind capacity. This approval by BEIS provided regulatory certainty for the updated project design and enabled the developer to continue progressing towards construction, which subsequently commenced onshore in July 2022 under the refined consented parameters.