Planning & Consent
Berwick Bank Wind Farm Planning and Consents
The Berwick Bank Wind Farm is a proposed offshore wind farm located in the outer Firth of Forth and Firth of Tay, approximately 37.8 km east of the Scottish Borders coastline (St. Abb’s Head) and 47.6 km to the East Lothian coastline.
The wind farm infrastructure
The Berwick Bank Wind Farm requires both offshore and onshore infrastructure to generate and transmit electricity from the offshore wind farm to the National Grid.
The offshore components include:
the offshore wind farm (the wind turbines, their foundations and associated inter-array cabling)
the associated transmission infrastructure including Offshore Substation Platforms (OSPs)/Offshore convertor station platforms, their foundations, interconnector cables, offshore export cables and cable protection.
The onshore components (in both East Lothian and Northumberland) include:
Onshore Export Cables
an Onshore Converter Station and associated grid connection to both the a Scottish Power Energy Networks (SPEN) 400 kV Grid Substation in Branxton and the exiting National Grid Blyth substation in Northumberland.
The grid connections
There are two grid connection locations:
In Scotland at Branxton, East Lothian, south west of the Torness Power station.
In England at Cambois, just north of Blyth in Northumberland.
The Offshore Export Cable Routes:
There are two proposed Offshore Export Cable Routes:
In Scottish waters, one from the wind farm making landfall in Skateraw, East Lothian to facilitate the grid connection into Branxton.
Passing through Scottish and English waters, one from the wind farm making Landfall at Cambois, Northumberland, to facilitate the grid connection into Blyth.
The offshore and onshore components of BBWF associated with the grid connection into Blyth are known as the Cambois Connection.
Planning consents:
Different planning consents are required for the various components of the Berwick Bank Wind Farm.
Further information is provided within our website but, to summarise, these include:
Offshore consents in Scottish waters
Berwick Bank Wind Farm Array Area and Export Cables connection to Branxton:
Consent under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 (as amended), the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, and Marine Licence under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009
These applications were submitted to the Marine Directorate in December 2022 and are currently being determined
Cambois Connection Export Cables:
Marine Licence under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009
This application was submitted to the Marine Directorate in July 2023 and is currently being determined
Offshore consents in English waters
Cambois Connection Export Cables:
Marine Licence under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009
This application was submitted to the Marine Management Organisation in July 2023 and is currently being determined
Onshore consents in Scotland and England
Grid Connection into Branxton, East Lothian, Scotland:
Onshore Export Cables, an Onshore Converter Station and associated grid connection: Planning Permission under the Town and Country Planning Act (Scotland)
This application was submitted to East Lothian Council in March 2023 and was granted consent in December 2023
Grid Connection into Blyth, Northumberland, England:
Onshore Export Cables, an Onshore Converter Station and associated grid connection: Planning Permission under Section 57 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990
This application was submitted to Northumberland County Council in October 2023 and is currently being determined
Ecosystem Management Proposals
Alongside our planning applications we will be suggesting a suite of ecosystem based management proposals to allow us to propose a more environmentally sensitive proposal for Berwick Bank Wind Farm.
You can find out more about our proposals below. For further information on our proposals please get in touch with our team at berwickbank@sse.com