£7 billion Outer Dowsing offshore wind farm - that will run cable through Wyberton, Kirton, Frampton, Fosdyke, Sutterton Dowdyke, Surfleet Seas End and create jobs - takes step closer to construction

A £7 billion giant offshore wind farm that will connect to the National Grid via cables through Lincolnshire has taken a large step closer to becoming reality.

The Planning Inspectorate has today (April 16) accepted the development consent order (DCO) application submitted by Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind for a 1.5 GW wind farm, located 33 miles (54km) off the Lincolnshire coast.

It is hoped that, if given the green light, the project could ‘result in an injection of over £2 billion of UK investment alongside the creation of hundreds of local jobs’.

Plans for the wind farm will see the project land at Anderby Creek with underground cable laid through parts of East Lindsey, Boston Borough and South Holland, including Wyberton, Kirton, Frampton, Fosdyke, Sutterton Dowdyke, Surfleet Seas End, before connecting at Surfleet Marsh.

“This milestone marks the culmination of three years of work and it is thanks to the experience on the team and highly engaged communities that we were able to get the project to this stage in this time frame,” said development director Chris Jenner.

“Through our voluntary participation in the early adopters programme we were also able to streamline certain processes to help refine the substation design principles.

“We are now one step closer to building a 1.5 GW wind farm that over its lifetime could result in an injection of over £2 billion of UK investment alongside the creation of hundreds of local jobs.

“We look forward to offering full cooperation with the Planning Inspectorate throughout the upcoming examination period.”

The project will now move to the examination stage where a panel of independent inspectors will conduct the examination of the application and make a recommendation to the Secretary of State about whether the project should go ahead.

Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind will now take steps to formally notify consultees and landowners of the acceptance of the submission and how they will be able to make representations on the application.

The DCO application includes an offshore wind farm comprising up to 100 turbines, underground cables to carry the power from the landfall site close to Anderby Marsh and a new onshore substation at Surfleet Marsh.

The project will then connect into existing National Grid overhead transmission lines in the Weston Marsh area.

Following multiple rounds of consultation, Outer Dowsing has integrated many changes to their initial design such as using horizontal directional drilling to drill underneath sensitive areas, onshore cable route amendments and offshore boundary changes to mitigate navigation impacts.

As part of this process, anyone can have their say about the project. All interested parties who wish to take part in the process should register for updates directly on the Planning Inspectorate web page for Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind.

Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind is being developed by TotalEnergies, Corio Generation and Gulf Energy Development.