The Secretary of State has granted development consent to Orsted’s Hornsea Three offshore wind farm.

A report from the planning inspectorate was initially passed to BEIS in July 2019 but the statutory date by which a decision was required was repeatedly delayed while new evidence and comment was sought over the effect of the giant wind farm on bird life. But eventually the secretary of state concluded that the project should go ahead for “imperative reasons of overriding public interest” despite adverse effects, including on kittiwakes in the Flamborough and Filey Coast special protection area and habitat loss in sandbanks around the Wash and North Norfolk Coast. The developer will have to take extra measures to compensate for that harm, such as providing new nesting areas for kittiwakes.

The decision letter warned that developers should not rely on BEIS to allow for such debate after the examining authority submitted its report in future.

The project will see up to 230 wind turbines (reduced from 300); up to three offshore accommodation platforms installed off the Yorkshire coast along with up to twelve offshore transformer substations and convertor or booster stations depending on whether the developer uses HVDC or HVAC links to the onshore grid. It also includes a foreshore connections to an onshore substation and on to National Grid’s existing Norwich Main substation.

Read the decision letter here.