Masdar-backed UK wind farm clears further hurdle

• Dogger Bank South will be 300GW
• Projects now in pre-examination
• Construction to start by end of 2025

An Abu Dhabi-backed offshore wind farm project in the UK has taken a big step forward after a development consent order application was accepted into examination by UK planning inspectors.

The Dogger Bank South wind farm, more than 100km off the northeastern coast of England, is split across two sites, DBS East and DBS West. Both have a capacity of 1.5 gigawatts, the equivalent of powering almost 1.5 million homes each.

A DCO is needed for developments which are ruled as nationally significant infrastructure projects, including those around energy, transport, water and waste.

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The DCO application moves the projects into the pre-examination phase. They will be subject to a public examination later this year.

Husain Al Meer, director of global offshore wind at Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company Masdar, said the latest move was a “significant step toward advancing our offshore wind capacity in the UK”.

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Construction is expected to start by the end of 2025, with the first 800 megawatts of electricity planned to come online in 2029. The projects should be fully commissioned by the end of 2031. 

Masdar acquired a 49 percent stake in the project in December last year as part of its global expansion drive.

The acquisition is part of the planned £11 billion ($14 billion) joint investment with Germany’s renewables giant RWE to support the UK’s ambition of reaching net zero emissions by 2050. 

The facility is expected to create 2,000 jobs during construction and more than 1,000 during the operational phase.