Consultation to start on massive wind project

A consortium of energy firms which will be building hundreds of turbines on the Dogger Bank, a large sand bank more than 60 miles off the Yorkshire coast, is holding five events in East Yorkshire to present proposals for its first development.

The development, Dogger Bank Creyke Beck, is planned to connect into the National Grid at an existing substation at Creyke Beck, near Cottingham. It will be made up of up two offshore wind farms each with a generating capacity of up to 1.4 Gigawatts, with onshore and offshore export cables, onshore converter stations and other associated infrastructure. Depending on the size of the turbine, Forewind is looking to build between 140 and 467 turbines per wind farm.

The only visual impact is expected to be the converter stations, which convert the electricity to the right current for the National Grid. These will consist of up to four large sheds on a footprint of 13 hectares near the current Creyke Bank sub station. All the cabling will be underground. The first turbines should be installed in 2014.

Barmston Village Hall will hold the first consultation event on December 5, before another session in Bridlington Spa on December 6, An event will be held at Brandesburton Parish Hall on December 7 before a fourth session at Cottingham Civic Hall on December 9. All the events are from 2pm to 8pm. The final event will be at Beverley Library on Saturday December 10 from 10am to 3pm.

The consortium behind the project, which is expected to create hundreds of jobs, is made up of power firms Scottish and Southern Energy, RWE Npower, Statoil and Statkraft. Consultation documents will be available from wwww.forewind.co.uk, libraries and council offices from Monday December 5.