Business secretary Greg Clark has granted consent for or offshore wind turbines with a tip height of 247m for the East Anglia THREE project, which will have a total output of up to 1200MW. This output would require up to 172 individual turbines across an area of 305 km2, 69 km east of Great Yarmouth. A company spokesman told The Engineer that no decision had yet been taken on the source of the turbines.
Scottish Power Renewables chief executive Keith Anderson commented the cost of offshore wind has tumbled in recent years, with electricity prices from East Anglia THREE projected to be £119 MW/hr.
Scottish Power Renewables is currently developing four projects in the East Anglia region, with the 714MW East Anglia ONE windfarm due to come on-stream in 2020.
Based on a 0.367 average load factor for offshore wind and an average household energy consumption of 3.900MWh, the 1200 MW maximum output for East Anglia THREE would power just short of 1 million homes.
The next stage in the process is to enter the project into a Contracts for Difference auction where the most economic projects receive a contract to go ahead with construction. If successful, the project will begin the construction phase in 2022, and could come on-stream in 2025.