Fid Financial Close

On 7 December 2006 the project company Gunfleet Sands Limited took the Final Investment Decision (FID) for the Gunfleet Sands Phase 1 offshore wind farm off the Essex coast. This decision, recorded in the agreed chronology submitted to the courts, marked the point at which the developer committed to proceed with construction and to the manufacture of the wind farm’s component parts. Earlier in the project, Gunfleet Sands had secured key consents, including a Section 109 consent in March 2003, an Agreement for Lease with the Crown Estate in April 2003, and a Transport and Works Act Order in March 2004, alongside an application for other consents in June 2006 and a Section 34 consent in December 2006. These regulatory and leasing milestones, together with environmental, metocean, geophysical and geotechnical studies, provided the technical and legal basis for the board to confirm the FID. Following the December 2006 FID and associated commitment of capital expenditure, further detailed design and site investigations were completed, including a final metocean report in January 2007 and extensive geophysical and geotechnical campaigns during 2007. Construction of the Phase 1 wind farm then commenced in March 2008 and was completed in April 2010, by which time the project had been fully commissioned. Gunfleet Sands Phase 1 comprises 18 turbines with a combined capacity of 64.8 MW, located approximately 7 km south‑east of Clacton‑on‑Sea, and it began generating electricity and trading on 12 November 2009. The formally recorded FID date later featured in UK tax tribunal and Supreme Court proceedings examining how pre‑FID study and project management costs should be treated for capital allowances purposes in relation to the operational wind farm.