- 13 May 2020
Sofia submits offshore non-material change application
Sofia Offshore Wind Farm Limited has submitted a non-material change application to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy regarding a handful of changes to the Development Consent Order (DCO) approved in 2015 and amended in 2019.
Due to the fact that technology has developed since the consent was granted, Sofia has applied to increase in the maximum hammer energy used for monopile installation to allow for larger foundations required by both the larger turbines and offshore converter platform. The application is also requesting consent to lay cables between the wind turbines and the offshore converter platform and increase the number of fibre-optic cables laid within the HVDC cables from one to two in specific areas. These were all fully assessed in the project's Environmental Statement but were not included in the DCO.
The final element of the application is to ensure consistency in cross-referencing with Deemed Marine Licence conditions in Variation 2 of Schedules 9 and 11 issued 25 April 2019.
Statutory stakeholders are being informed of the application and invited to read the relevant documentation, which is online here as well as at the website of the National Infrastructure Planning.
The deadline for representations to be received on the application is 2 July 2020. They need to be sent by email to the Planning Inspectorate at DBTeessideAB@planninginspectorate.gov.uk or in writing to: Major Applications & Plans, The Planning Inspectorate, Temple Quay House, Temple Quay, Bristol BS1 6PN. Please quote reference EN010051 on any correspondence.
