Ofgem has granted an electricity generation licence to Berwick Bank Wind Farm Limited, the project company established by SSE Renewables which is developing the Berwick Bank offshore wind farm in Scotland.
The licence was approved two months after the developer submitted an application to Ofgem, which then opened a 30-day comment period that closed on 31 July.
Located in the outer Firth of Forth, 40 kilometres off the east coast of Scotland, Berwick Bank has been in development for ten years, initially as two projects: the 2.3 GW Berwick Bank and the 1.85 GW Marr Bank offshore wind farm.
In September 2021, SSE Renewables announced that it had combined the two projects into one development – the Berwick Bank Wind Farm.
When complete, the 4.1 GW offshore wind farm will be capable of generating enough renewable energy to power over five million homes, equivalent to all of Scotland’s households twice over, according to the developer.
After combining the two projects into one development, SSE Renewables revised the project’s overall area twice, first time last year and the second time earlier this year, before applying for planning consent with Scottish Ministers in the fourth quarter of 2022.
The change to the project site boundary is one of several measures taken to reduce potential effects on local seabird populations as well as benthic and shellfish ecology, fishing, shipping and navigation and represents the final step in the pre-consent design process, according to earlier information from SSE Renewables.