Wind energy industry and Ministry of Defence agree support for key offshore wind farm developments

- MoD objections to £7bn of offshore wind farms planned for Greater Wash to be removed through joint Government-industry funding for new radar system

- The Crown Estate, Department for Energy and Climate Change and RenewableUK all engaged with MoD in groundbreaking deal


RenewableUK, the UK’s leading renewable energy trade association, today announces a groundbreaking deal between the wind energy industry and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) which will see a joint government and industry-funded radar system installed to monitor the Greater Wash. This new system will enable the MoD to lift its current objections to five offshore wind farms which represent £7bn of investment and stand to deliver more than 3,000MW of wind energy, enough capacity to power 1.7 million homes.


The agreement to acquire a Lockheed Martin radar follows tests conducted in Denmark in 2008, and a subsequent extensive modelling exercise, which demonstrated that this system, already installed in over 150 locations worldwide, is able to consistently filter the movement of offshore turbines with other air and seaborne activity.


The full costs for the acquisition of the radar system have not been disclosed, though these have been jointly met by Government and wind energy companies seeking to construct the offshore wind farms in the Greater Wash. The costs have been negotiated jointly between industry and The Crown Estate as the seabed owner, DECC, the government Ministry for energy policy, and the MoD as the principle objector to-date for the planned offshore wind farm development in the Greater Wash.

Commenting on the agreement, Nicola Vaughan, Head of Aviation at RenewableUK said:

“RenewableUK is pleased that the objections by the Ministry of Defence to the development of these offshore wind farms, some 3,000MW of wind energy capacity, can now be lifted.

“Working together with government, the wind energy industry has proved that obstacles to such developments can be overcome in the interests of the UK as a whole; we look forward to continuing progress in other areas where opportunities for developing groundbreaking offshore wind energy schemes would enable further significant advances towards the UK’s renewable aspirations.”