Between March and July 2026, Five Estuaries is undertaking farmland breeding bird surveys at the future onshore substation site, with specialist ornithologists carrying out six visits during the main breeding season to establish baseline bird populations and inform consented compensation measures for species such as skylark and corn bunting.
On 17 December 2025, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, acting via the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, granted a Development Consent Order for the Five Estuaries offshore wind farm, authorising construction and operation of an offshore wind generating station of up to 1080 MW with up to 79 turbines off the Suffolk and Essex coast.
By 17 December 2025, Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm had an established joint-venture ownership structure in which RWE holds a 33.33% stake, a Macquarie-led consortium holds 25%, and ESB and Sumitomo Corporation each hold 20.83%, with RWE Renewables UK leading development of the project on behalf of these partners.
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Five Estuaries is a proposed extension offshore wind farm in the southern North Sea located approximately 37 km off the Suffolk/Essex coast, developed as an adjacent expansion to the operational Galloper Wind Farm. The project covers two seabed array areas of about 128 km² and is being progressed...
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East Anglia Connection Node (EACN), Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm, Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm Ltd, Galloper Extension – Five Estuaries, Crown Estate 2017 Extensions – Five Estuaries, Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm Project, Five Estuaries, Galloper extension
On 11 September 2025, the UK Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero issued a parliamentary statement extending the statutory decision deadline for the Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm Development Consent Order application under the Planning Act 2008 from 17 September 2025 to 17 December 2025, to allow time to request and consider further information and comments from interested parties.
Five Estuaries’ project website (news/update page under author Nikki Berry) states that Five Estuaries and North Falls are jointly carrying out archaeological trial trenching surveys starting in the week commencing 8 September 2025 between Bentley Road and Ardleigh Road in Little Bentley, with works expected to take 6–8 weeks (to mid‑October).
The Crown Estate implemented its Capacity Increase Programme covering seven fixed-bottom offshore wind projects, including Five Estuaries, by launching a process to amend existing seabed rights and enable up to 4.7 GW of additional offshore wind capacity across these sites. Under this programme, Five Estuaries is selected and granted permission in principle to increase the potential capacity that can be developed within its lease area, although the specific expanded capacity for the project has not been disclosed, following a plan-level Habitats Regulations Assessment and agreement by the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.
On 25 March 2024, Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm Limited submitted a Development Consent Order application to the Planning Inspectorate for the Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm, an extension to the operational Galloper project in the southern North Sea. The application covered up to 1,080 MW of offshore wind generation, up to two offshore substation platforms, subsea export cables making landfall at Sandy Point between Frinton-on-Sea and Holland-on-Sea in Essex, onshore cables to a new substation west of Little Bromley, and 400 kV grid connection cables to National Grid's proposed East Anglia Connection Node. The application was accepted for examination on 23 April 2024.
On 25 March 2024, Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm Ltd submitted an application for a Development Consent Order for the Five Estuaries offshore wind farm to the Planning Inspectorate on behalf of the Secretary of State, starting the formal examination process under the Planning Act 2008.
In March 2024, the developer defined the engineering design envelope for the offshore export cable system and corridor for Five Estuaries Transmission in its Cable Statement and Outline Cable Specification and Installation Plan. The documents specify up to two 275 kV HVAC offshore export cable circuits with a total length of up to 196 km, an export cable corridor up to 2 km wide, and associated installation parameters such as maximum burial depth and seabed disturbance, and set proposed Order Limits for the Export Cable Corridor within which the final route will be designed.
Between December 2023 and January 2024, Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm Ltd carried out a targeted Stage 3 statutory public consultation to engage specific stakeholders on refined proposals ahead of submitting its Development Consent Order application.
In 2023, Five Estuaries completed an initial stage of archaeological trial‑trenching within the proposed onshore substation area as part of Phase 1 evaluation works, providing baseline information on archaeology to inform mitigation and the subsequent Development Consent Order application.
Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm and the neighbouring North Falls project signed a 'good neighbour agreement' in early summer 2023, after recognising that their proposed routes were very similar. The agreement formalised coordination between the two projects, enabling closer liaison, information sharing and joint planning during site selection and design work.
By the time of the Stage 2 Consultation in April 2023, Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm Ltd had selected and refined the onshore export cable corridor for the Five Estuaries Transmission connection, running from the Sandy Point landfall to National Grid’s proposed East Anglia Connection Node substation near Lawford in Essex. The route, approximately 22 km long and entirely underground, was engineered and optimised using environmental surveys, engineering assessments, avoidance of residential properties, and feedback from the first consultation stage, and allows up to four HVAC export circuits to be installed.
By April 2023, Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm Ltd reported that the project was actively engaged in the UK government’s Offshore Transmission Network Review and had identified an opportunity to coordinate its onshore transmission connection with the neighbouring North Falls Offshore Wind Farm. The developer was considering applying for a Development Consent Order that would preserve flexibility for a future coordinated connection, while in parallel continuing to develop an onshore connection based on existing regulations to avoid delays to its planned grid connection date and to support the UK’s 2030 offshore wind targets.
In April 2023, Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm Ltd undertook a Stage 2 public consultation presenting updated proposals for the Five Estuaries project’s transmission system, including up to four underground onshore export cable circuits along an approximately 22 km corridor from landfall to a new project-specific substation near Little Bromley and onward connection to National Grid’s proposed East Anglia Connection Node substation near Lawford. The consultation materials explained the refined onshore cable corridor, construction methods, substation search areas, and opportunities for coordinated routing with the North Falls Offshore Wind Farm, seeking stakeholder feedback to further optimise the onshore grid connection.
From March to May 2023, Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm Ltd published its Preliminary Environmental Information Report and undertook a statutory Stage 2 public consultation to obtain formal stakeholder feedback on the project’s updated design and environmental information.
In summer 2022, Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm Ltd launched an ongoing public engagement programme as its Stage 1 consultation to gather feedback from communities and stakeholders on early proposals for the Five Estuaries offshore wind farm.
In spring 2022, National Grid announced the location of its new 400 kV East Anglia Connection Node (EACN) substation near Lawford on the Tendring Peninsula and advised the Five Estuaries project that it would connect its transmission export system to the national electricity transmission network at this node, thereby defining the grid connection point for the Five Estuaries transmission and onshore substation works.
In autumn 2021, Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm Ltd carried out a scoping consultation to determine the extent of the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment, inviting stakeholder input on the issues and topics the EIA should cover.
In spring and summer 2021, Five Estuaries commenced its onshore and offshore survey campaigns, initiating field investigations to gather environmental and technical data needed to support project design and consenting.
National Grid presented Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm Ltd with a connection offer to an East Anglia Coastal 400 kV substation, later known as the East Anglia Connection Node (EACN) within the Norwich to Tilbury reinforcement project, and this grid connection offer was signed by the developer in November 2020, securing the project’s future transmission connection point in Tendring, Essex.
After National Grid presented and the applicant signed a revised grid connection offer in November 2020 for a new East Anglia Coastal 400 kV substation (now part of the Norwich to Tilbury reinforcement and EACN), Five Estuaries shifted its onshore site selection from Suffolk to the Tendring peninsula in Essex so the DCO application could proceed on the basis of connecting to a National Grid substation there.
On 28 September 2020, RWE Renewables and its partners signed Agreements for Lease with The Crown Estate for developing four offshore wind farm extension projects in the United Kingdom, including the Galloper Extension (subsequently renamed Five Estuaries). The agreement secured seabed rights for a potential extension of up to 1,080 MW adjacent to the operational 353 MW Galloper Wind Farm in the southern North Sea, as part of The Crown Estate's programme to maximise the potential of existing offshore wind lease areas.
In summer 2020, The Crown Estate awarded the Five Estuaries project to RWE, confirming its development rights to build up to 79 wind turbines in the southern North Sea and an associated onshore substation connecting into National Grid’s East Anglia Connection Node (EACN).
In summer 2020, the extension project was formally named Five Estuaries and the dedicated project website was launched, providing a public-facing identity and information hub for the planned extension to the Galloper Offshore Wind Farm.
In 2017, through The Crown Estate’s 2017 offshore wind extensions opportunity for existing wind farms, the area for an extension to the 353 MW Galloper Offshore Wind Farm was awarded rights to develop the seabed, establishing the offshore zone that has since been named the Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm, covering about 128 km² roughly 37 km offshore with a grid connection in Tendring, Essex.
A joint venture company, Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm Limited, has been established for the Five Estuaries project, including its HVAC transmission system, with ownership shared between RWE (25%), a Macquarie-led consortium (25%), Siemens Financial Services (25%), ESB (12.5%) and Sumitomo Corporation (12.5%), with RWE leading development on behalf of the partners.
Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm Ltd carried out an initial (Stage 1) public consultation on the Five Estuaries project, including the offshore wind farm and its onshore grid connection infrastructure such as the export cable corridor and project-specific substation in Tendring, Essex. Feedback from this first stage of consultation was then used, alongside environmental surveys and engineering assessments, to refine the onshore cable corridor and inform later coordinated planning of the onshore connection to National Grid’s East Anglia Connection Node and potential alignment with the North Falls Offshore Wind Farm project.
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