The UK Planning Inspectorate has set out a timetable for the examination of the East Anglia Three offshore wind farm application and issued procedural decisions made after the Preliminary Meeting, held on 28 June.
The application was submitted by ScottishPower Renewables in November 2015 and accepted for examination the following month.
A panel forming the Examining Authority (ExA) for East Anglia Three’s Development Consent Order (DCO) application is under a duty to complete the examination of the application by the end of the period of 6 months, beginning with the day after the close of the Preliminary Meeting, which falls on Wednesday, 28 December 2016.
The 1,200MW East Anglia Three project will require up to 172 wind turbines, while covering an area of 305km² in the southern North Sea. Once completed, the wind farm could power the annual electricity demands of more than 850,000 homes.
It is anticipated that the project could support up to 4,800 jobs in the UK during the construction phase, with around 2,900 jobs created in the East of England region alone.
If the planning application gets approval, it is anticipated that onshore construction could begin in 2021, with offshore work starting in 2022 and first power generation achieved in 2023.