Suffolk campaigners lose offshore wind farm legal battle - BBC
Suffolk campaigners lose offshore wind farm legal battle - BBC News
Suffolk campaigners lose offshore wind farm legal battle
- Published
A campaign group that raised concerns about the creation of two wind farms off Suffolk has lost a High Court fight with ministers.
Suffolk Energy Action Solutions (SEAS) challenged a decision made last year to allow wind farms to be developed by two subsidiaries of Scottish Power.
It argued that in doing so, the then business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng had acted unlawfully.
A judge on Friday dismissed the group's challenge.
SEAS had also raised concern about the ability of landowners facing possible compulsory purchase to present objections.
Mr Justice Holgate outlined his conclusions in a written ruling after considering arguments at a High Court hearing in London in May.
He said the central issue had been whether the way a complaint by SEAS, relating to the ability of landowners to present objections, had been dealt with lawfully.
The judge said the wind farms "would deliver" about 7.5% of the UK's "cumulative deployment target for renewable energy in 2030".
Cables would export electricity to a "landfall" near Thorpeness then to a substation in Friston, near Leiston.
He said SEAS had been set up in 2019 with members from Aldeburgh, Snape, Friston and neighbouring villages and towns.
"Their object is to protect areas of the coast and countryside said to be threatened by the scheme.
"SEAS supports renewable energy including the proposed offshore works in this case.
"But it contended that [ministers] should refuse development consent for the onshore works because of their impact on people, the countryside, and the environment.
"SEAS submitted that better solutions could and should be found for bringing onshore the electricity generated by wind farms in the North Sea."
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Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.