Abstract
Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm (GGOW) is located off the coast of Suffolk, England and was commissioned in 2012. In February 2017, The Crown Estate launched an opportunity for existing wind farms to apply for project extensions and North Falls Offshore Wind Ltd (NFOW)) applied for a lease to develop an extension located immediately adjacent to the western boundary of the existing GGOW array areas. In August 2019, The Crown Estate consulted on and then concluded a plan-level Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) for the proposed extension projects and confirmed that Greater Gabbard Extension, now named North Falls Offshore Wind Farm (hereafter ‘North Falls’ or ‘the project’) would be among seven that would be awarded an Agreement for Lease (AfL).
As the project is an offshore generating station over 100MW, it is classified as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) and as such a Development Consent Order (DCO) is required under the Planning Act 2008. In order to support the DCO application, an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is required. This document supports a request for an EIA scoping opinion from the Planning Inspectorate for North Falls, in accordance with Regulation 10 of the Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017 (hereafter the ‘EIA Regulations’). The EIA Regulations enable an applicant to request a scoping opinion from the Secretary of State on the information to be included in an EIA. This scoping report outlines the receptors that will be considered during the EIA, the proposed data gathering and assessment methodology in order to characterise the existing environment; assess potential impacts; and develop mitigation measures. This scoping report provides high level information which will be expanded during a programme of consultation (the Evidence Plan Process (EPP)) with technical stakeholders throughout the EIA process.