BP and EnBW have selected RPS as Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) and Habitat Regulations Assessment (HRA) lead for the development of the two lease areas the joint venture partners secured this February in the UK Offshore Wind Round 4.
“The lease areas have a combined potential capacity of 3 GW, enough to power the equivalent of more than 3.4 million UK homes with clean electricity. Our team will lead a range of assessments, working closely with the bp and EnBW project team and a wide range of stakeholders, culminating in an application for Development Consent for each project” , RPS said in a press release.
The two lease sites are located in the Irish Sea, around 30 kilometres off the coast of North West England and North Wales, in water depths ranging from 35 to 40 metres. Lease one covers an area of around 300 square kilometres and lease two around 500 square kilometres.
The two areas are estimated to be the highest-value areas in the first auction of offshore wind rights in England and Wales since 2010, according to EnBW.
As they will be built at adjacent sites, the projects are expected to benefit from significant synergies in procurement, development and operational costs, BP said in February. Additional value is also expected to be generated through the integration with BP’s trading organisation to take power to market, as well as the provision of power for BP’s electric vehicle charging network in the UK and other opportunities.
The projects are first of this kind that BP and EnBW would build in the UK.
The UK oil major and the German energy company also announced earlier this month that they would be taking part in the ScotWind seabed leasing round in Scotland.