Location of offshore wind park announced

In January 2010, The Crown Estate awarded Eneco an area of the seabed to explore the most suitable place to locate a wind park with an approximate capacity of at least 900MW. Over the past year, Eneco has been appraising the area and has concluded that a project of between 900MW and 1200MW of capacity could be located in the northern part of the awarded area.

At the closest point, the wind park will be appr. 13.2km away from Peveril Point in Swanage. The northern boundary of the site is located 16.4km from Bournemouth and 13.5km south west of The Needles and the Isle of Wight coast.

The decision on the wind park location was reached after Eneco conducted a Zone Appraisal and Planning (ZAP) process in accordance with guidance from The Crown Estate. This is a new non-statutory strategic planning process designed to give developers a view of their zone as a whole. In order to make the decision, feedback from meetings with stakeholders throughout the year and public information days held in November 2010 were considered. Additionally, findings from engineering and environmental surveys were assessed as part of the decision making process. Now that the wind park location has been identified, Eneco will undertake a formal consultation process in accordance with the Planning Act of 2008 on the project as a whole. Next steps include consultation on the onshore infrastructure associated with connecting the wind park with the National Grid and conducting an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).