Consense to provide a website to engage with stakeholders and the public for Round 3 offshore wind programme

(21/01/2010)

Consense has been appointed by ScottishPower Renewables and Swedish company Vattenfall to provide a website to engage with key stakeholders and the public, following the recent announcement of the winning companies for The Crown Estate's Round 3 offshore wind programme.

ScottishPower Renewables and Swedish company Vattenfall have won development rights to Zone 5, to generate up to 7200MW off the Norfolk and Suffolk coast with a scheme known as East Anglia Offshore Wind).

Now that the successful consortia have been formally announced, East Anglia Offshore Wind will accelerate their scoping work before lodging a formal planning application. Consense will assist in an important element of the planning application, first providing an online portal for project details in an informative and transparent way; and eventually upgrading the website to gather valuable feedback and comments as part of the formal consultation process.

The UK Crown Estate, which owns the seabed out to 12 kilometres, is hoping Round 3 will yield as much as 32 gigawatts (GW) of green electricity. The Government hopes that Round 3 will create UK-based firms, technologies and skills leading to a thriving renewables sector and around 70,000 jobs by 2020.

Construction work for the Round 3 offshore wind farms is expected to begin in approximately 2014/2015. The Government is optimistic that the bulk of the projects will be completed by 2020; making a major contribution to the UK's target of generating 15 per cent of its power from renewable energy sources by the end of the decade.

Consense is critically placed to provide the optimum support for businesses looking to develop offshore wind farms, offering a service that goes above and beyond the guidelines on consultation set out by the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA). Consense is currently running 71 online consultations across the UK, mostly for proposed renewable energy schemes, including six ScottishPower Renewables onshore wind farms.

Related categories:  Wind power