Planning Consent Submitted

ESB’s Stoura Offshore Wind project, a proposed 500 MW floating offshore wind farm located off the east coast of Shetland, is progressing through early-stage development towards a coordinated package of planning and consent applications targeted for 2028. ESB explains that the ultimate construction and operation of the wind farm will require multiple consents, including a Section 36 consent, an offshore Marine Licence, a Shetland Islands Council Works Licence, and onshore planning permission for associated infrastructure such as landfall, cable routes and substation facilities. These are described collectively as planning applications that the developer aims to submit by 2028, forming the core regulatory gateway for the project to advance towards construction and eventual operation in the mid‑2030s.[1][2] The developer’s 2024 public exhibition materials acknowledge that it is difficult at this early stage to predict precise milestone dates, but present a project timeline in which “Planning Application” follows option agreements, surveys, consultation and offshore scoping, and is positioned around 2028 as the current best estimate.[2] The August 2024 ESB press release reinforces this by calling the first public exhibition “a critical step” in preparing the Environmental Impact Assessment and “the submission of planning applications by 2028,” underlining that community input and environmental data collection are being structured to feed directly into that application package.[1] Updated project boards from 2025 retain this target, labelling an “EIA & Planning Application” milestone at approximately 2028, after offshore and onshore scoping work and successive public engagements in 2024 and 2025.[3] This confirms that, as of 2025, ESB continues to plan for submitting the main development consent applications for Stoura around 2028, with ongoing surveys, scoping reports and stakeholder engagement framed as preparation for that submission.[2][3]