UK green lights Ørsted’s Hornsea Four offshore wind farm
UK green lights Ørsted’s Hornsea Four offshore wind farm | Windpower Monthly
The UK government has granted permitting approval for Ørsted’s 2.6GW Hornsea Project Four, bringing the Danish renewables major one step closer to competing at auction.
Regulators had delayed the permitting decision on the wind farm in order to assess how Ørsted will adequately protect native seabirds at the project.
Ørsted plans to use up to 180 turbines for the project, which is planned at a site off the coast of Yorkshire in north-east England.
The Danish renewables major still needs to have Hornsea Project Four’s supply chain plan approved before it can enter the project in the UK’s contracts for difference auction scheme.
It had been locked in a dispute with oil major BP, which had secured seabed rights for the same area where it plans to build a CO2 storage project.
However, the two parties recently reached an agreement to allow their respective projects to proceed.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: wind
Decades of government support for the development of wind energy has resulted in lower costs and a rapidly growing share of electricity generated by wind turbines. Wind in 2019 accounted for 7.3 percent of electrical generation, surpassing for the first time hydropower at 7.0 percent.