SSE, Equinor Expected to Submit Dogger Bank D DCO Application in Summer 2026

Statutory consultation for the Dogger Bank D offshore wind farm will open on 10 June, as the co-owners of the project, SSE Renewables and Equinor, are working towards applying for development consent. According to information on the UK Planning Inspectorate’s website, the application for a Development Consent Order (DCO) for the project is expected to be filed between July and September 2026.

On 6 June, SSE and Equinor invited community members and stakeholders to have their say on proposals for Dogger Bank D, starting on 10 June. The feedback from the consultation, which will be open for eight weeks, will be used to help inform the final DCO application for the project, which is the fourth phase of Dogger Bank Wind Farm, already the world’s biggest offshore wind farm in construction.

Dogger Bank D will have an installed capacity of up to 1.5 GW, according to the latest information shared by the Dogger Bank D joint venture partners, which earlier said the project would have up to 2 GW of installed capacity.

These latest proposals for Dogger Bank D, which are now put up for statutory consultation, follow extensive environmental studies and feedback received from earlier stages of engagement, the developers said on 6 June.

The proposals include plans for offshore infrastructure for renewable electricity generation as well as offshore and onshore infrastructure for transmission of the electricity generated by the wind farm.

Offshore, the wind farm array covers a site of 262 square kilometres with up to 113 fixed-bottom offshore wind turbines. The offshore application also proposes up to two offshore platforms, as well as associated export and inter-array subsea cabling that would export power from Dogger Bank D to the national grid at a landfall point near Skipsea, in East Riding of Yorkshire.

From the Skipsea landfall, underground cables would transmit renewable power along a 55-kilometre route to an onshore converter station near a new onshore substation being developed by National Grid Electricity Transmission near Cottingham, north of Hull, called Birkhill Wood.

The project is also proposing potential plans to co-locate energy storage and balancing infrastructure at the site of the proposed onshore converter station.

Last year, the SSE-Equinor joint venture and The Crown Estate established commercial terms of a proposed variation of the existing Dogger Bank C seabed lease, within which the developers plan to build Dogger Bank D. Since the fourth Dogger Bank Wind Farm phase would be located within the boundaries of the existing seabed lease area, it was not required to go through a seabed leasing process.

However, the project does require a new Development Consent Order (DCO) to progress into construction and was still subject to the Plan-Level Habitats Regulation Assessment (HRA) that The Crown Estate is required to undertake before making final decisions under the wider Capacity Increase Programme.

In May this year, the Crown Estate said it was proceeding with its Capacity Increase Programme to maximise the potential of existing offshore wind lease areas to add 4.7 GW of renewable energy by amending existing seabed rights to increase the capacity of seven offshore wind farms located around England and Wales.

The seven projects are Awel y Môr, Dudgeon Extension, Sheringham Shoal Extension, North Falls, Five Estuaries, Rampion 2, and Dogger Bank D.

The first three phases of the Dogger Bank Wind Farm are currently under construction. With an installed capacity of 1.2 GW each, Dogger Bank A, B and C will make up the world’s biggest offshore wind farm with a capacity of 3.6 GW, which would increase to 5.1 GW with Dogger Bank D.

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