Plan for Isle of Wight offshore wind farm

The UK’s flagship wind power project to develop up to 32 GW of offshore wind energy capacity by 2020 took a major leap forward after one of the developers involved in the so-called Round 3 projects confirmed the location of its proposed Isle of Wight wind farm.

Eneco confirmed it will build a wind farm with a capacity of between 900 MW and 1,200 MW, covering 76 square miles of the 279 square mile south coast zone that it secured the right to develop under the Crown Estate’s Round 3 programme last year.

The Dutch Utility will now undertake a formal consultation process as required by the 2009 Planning Act with the aim of starting construction in 2016 and switching on the turbines in 2019.

Like other Round 3 developers Eneco had to conduct a Zone Appraisal and Planning (ZAP) process to choose the exact location of the project.

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