Vattenfall launches official consultation on Norfolk Vanguard offshore wind farm

The Swedish energy group is publishing, next week, its statutory consultation plans for the 1.8 gigawatt (GW) Norfolk Vanguard project, known as a Statement of Community Consultation (SoCC). Vattenfall has also set out, in a newsletter to around 30,000 Norfolk households, its latest thinking on onshore infrastructure. The newsletter also invites communities along the 60km onshore cable corridor to eight drop-in sessions.

Vattenfall can confirm that no part of the 60km export cable will run under any house, from landfall south of Happisburgh and along the cable corridor to the substation near Necton.

Ruari Lean, Vattenfall’s Norfolk Vanguard Project Manager said: “What we are setting out in detail in our statement of community consultation is our engagement plan to discuss and get feedback on what is called preliminary environmental information. The PEI report sets out our latest layout of the offshore and onshore parts of the project, what we think will be the impacts and how we will go about minimising them.

“We will consult according to the SoCC, which means we will do what we say we will do.

“We ask everyone who is interested to tell us what they think of the information that we have published. We have already received a high volume of detailed feedback on residents’ concerns but also how people think Norfolk can benefit from what will be a significant inward investment in the region. The quality of feedback so far has been excellent and we thank those that have taken the time to engage in this process for nationally significant infrastructure projects.”

The PEI report provides environmental information on a potential offshore wind farm with 90-257  turbines with generating capacity of 7-20MW each and up to 350 metres tall (tip height).

Also, onshore infrastructure which includes a proposed landfall site, two cable relay station location options (one will only be selected for the DCO, if required), a 60km cable corridor and a project substation, as well as modification to overhead transmission lines and an extension to the existing Necton 400kV National Grid substation so that power can be exported to the National Grid.

When up and running in the mid-2020s, Norfolk Vanguard will produce enough fossil-free electricity every year to meet the equivalent annual electricity demand of 1.3 million UK households, almost 5% of UK household demand*.

Local residents and interested parties can find out how to get involved at www.vattenfall.co.uk/vattenfallinnorfolk. Vattenfall is also holding eight drop-in sessions across Norfolk. Details of these can also be found at www.vattenfall.co.uk/norfolkvanguard. The statutory consultation process runs from 7 November to 11 December.

Norfolk Boreas, Norfolk Vanguard’s sister project, is in an earlier phase of the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Planning process with its environmental impact assessment still ongoing. You can find out more about Norfolk Boreas here www.vattenfall.co.uk/norfolkboreas.

*The Office for National Statistics estimates that there were 27.1 million UK households in 2016.