Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm

Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm is an offshore wind farm being developed 32 km north of Cromer off the coast of Norfolk, in the North Sea, England. It is owned by Dudgeon Offshore Wind Limited (DOW), a subsidiary of Statoil, Masdar and Statkraft. The site is a relatively flat area of seabed between the Cromer Knoll and Inner Cromer Knoll sandbanks and is one of the furthest offshore sites currently being developed around the UK.The project includes constructing the wind turbines and their foundations, building an offshore substation and an onshore substation at Necton, installing power cables both undersea and onshore, as well as connection to the UK National Grid. This work is estimated to take about two years and cost in the region of £1.5bn. The wind farm should be fully operational by the end of 2017.PlanningThe project was originally developed by Warwick Energy Limited, who set up a subsidiary called Dudgeon Offshore Wind Limited. The wind farm planning application was filed in April 2009. The application was for between 56 and 168 turbines depending on final chosen design with a nameplate capacity of 560 MW.In July 2012 the government gave planning approval for Warwick Energy to construct a wind farm to the capacity of 560MW. In October 2012 Statoil and Statkraft acquired the Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm project through the acquisition of all shares from Warwick Energy. A review of the project was undertaken after the project was acquired by Statoil and Statkraft, and in December 2013 it was announced that the capacity of the wind farm would be reduced from 560MW to 402MW.