The British government has approved plans for a 1,500-MW wind farm off the coast of Fylde in Lancashire, in northwestern England.
The Morgan Offshore Wind Project will feature 96 turbines, each with about 15.6 MW of generation capacity. The installation is sited just more than 20 miles off the Fylde coast. Plans call for an onshore connection to the UK’s national grid from Starr Gate through the Fylde region.
Some local officials have said they are concerned about disruptions to roads and other infrastructure in Fylde during construction of the offshore wind farm. Morgan and Morecambe, a partnership between energy companies EnBW and JERA Nex BP that is developing the project, in a statement said the groups are “fully committed to minimizing these effects, and it is absolutely right that concerns are considered thoroughly and independently by the examining authority as part of the ongoing examination” of the project.
The companies have said project “could generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of around two million UK homes every year,” and noted that “We recognize that projects of this scale and importance affect local communities.”
The UK is the second-largest offshore wind market in the world, according to the British government. The British Energy Security Strategy), published in April 2022, announced a goal to install as much as 50 GW of offshore wind by 2030, including 5 GW from floating technology. Government data shows the UK has about 14 GW of offshore wind generation capacity that is fully commissioned, a fourfold increase from 2012. Officials have said there is a pipeline of about 77 GW from 80 projects that are either under construction, consented, in development, or planned in future leasing auctions.
—Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.
