The UK government has postponed its decision on whether to grant development consent for the 480-megawatt Morecambe offshore wind farm in the Irish Sea, extending the deadline from 23 October to 19 December.
Labour Minister for Energy Consumers Martin McCluskey, speaking on behalf of Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, said the delay was required to allow time for the submission and review of additional information not available during the project’s examination phase.
“This is to allow time to request further information that was not available for consideration during the examination period and to give all interested parties the opportunity to review and comment on such information,” McCluskey said in a statement.
“Whilst it is not my preference to extend, I am clear that applications for consent for energy projects submitted under the Planning Act 2008 must meet the necessary standards,” he added. “The decision to set the new deadline for these applications is without prejudice to the decision on whether to grant or refuse development consent.”
The Morecambe wind farm, a Round 4 project located approximately 30 kilometres off the Lancashire coast, was acquired earlier this year by Denmark-based Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) from Flotation Energy and Cobra.
The postponement marks the second recent delay to an offshore wind planning decision in the UK, following the government’s move to defer a ruling on the 1.5-gigawatt Outer Dowsing project proposed by TotalEnergies and Corio Generation off the east coast of England.
The delays come as the UK continues to evaluate large-scale renewable energy projects under the framework of the Planning Act 2008, which governs nationally significant infrastructure developments.
