Planning Consent Submitted

Celtic Offshore Wind Limited (COWL) submitted the Section 36 application under the Electricity Act 1989 to the Department of Trade and Industry in 2002 for a 25-turbine, 90 MW offshore wind farm on Rhyl Flats in Liverpool Bay, off the North Wales coast between Rhyl and Llandudno. The supporting Environmental Impact Assessment / Environmental Statement was prepared by Anatec et al. and is dated 2002. Rhyl Flats was a UK Round 1 offshore wind project, following The Crown Estate's April 2001 lease award. COWL received Section 36 consent in 2002, after which the project was acquired by Npower Renewables in December 2002 (Npower later becoming part of RWE Renewables). The narrow gap between submission and consent is consistent with the streamlined Round 1 consenting process operated by the DTI's Offshore Renewables Consent Unit. Offshore foundation construction began in July 2007 and the wind farm was officially opened on 2 December 2009. Month-precision submission date could not be definitively pinned from publicly available sources.