Equinor and SSE finalise lease for huge expansion of world’s biggest offshore wind farm

Equinor and SSE have finalised a seabed lease that will see them progress the Dogger Bank D project, a 1.5GW expansion of the world’s largest offshore wind farm currently under construction in the UK North Sea.

The project partners announced today that they had reached the important milestone in the development of the proposed fourth phase of the 3.6GW Dogger Bank wind farm currently under construction in the UK North Sea.

The lease, agreed with The Crown Estate, allows the 50-50 joint venture shareholders SSE Renewables and Equinor to maximise the potential renewable electricity generation capacity from the eastern portion of the existing Dogger Bank C seabed lease area, said the partners.

A fourth phase has the future potential to unlock an additional 1.5GW in renewables capacity at Dogger Bank, they said, and would make the world’s biggest offshore wind farm even bigger.

Melissa Read, head of regional development for UK renewables at Norwegian oil giant Equinor, said: “Reaching this milestone for the Dogger Bank D development provides future opportunity to unlock more value and volume from the world’s largest offshore wind farm whilst building on our expertise and presence in the North East of England.

“The UK is a core strategic market for Equinor and Dogger Bank D demonstrates how there is the potential to further develop our future UK portfolio by having the opportunity to increase future value from quality existing assets.”

Steve Wilson, director of offshore development and construction at Britain’s SSE Renewables, said: “We’re delighted to have finalised an amendment to the existing Dogger Bank C seabed lease agreement with The Crown Estate to unlock additional clean energy potential from the site’s existing seabed lease.”

“In amending the lease in this innovative way, we’ve taken significant strides to progress Dogger Bank D as a proposed fourth phase of the world’s largest offshore wind farm in construction”.

Dogger Bank D recently concluded its statutory consultation during which project proposals – including plans for up to 113 fixed-bottom turbines and two offshore substations – were presented to the public.

The project will now need to seek a Development Consent Order, which SSE and Equinor said they expect to submit an application for in due course.