The turbine area mitigation option

EDF and Eneco (NBDL) proposed an additional “turbine area mitigation option” for the Navitus Bay wind farm in November 2014.  This would be a smaller wind farm of 630MW capacity in the southern part of its area, but the current 970MW proposal has NOT been withdrawn and the examination of this proposal will continue.  The developer wants the Secretary of State to have an alternative in case he / she decides not to consent the original proposal.

We have included summary details below. The developer's information about this option can be found on the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) project page in a number of documents, the main document can be found here. 

The Wind Farm Location

What is proposed

The planned capacity would be 630MW, the same as the World's largest operating offshore wind farm, the London Array.

There could be 105 x 6MW turbines or 76 x 8MW turbines, up to 200m tall and 2 offshore substations in an area of 79 square km.

The closest point would be Durlston Head, part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Purbeck Heritage Coast and on the South West Coast Path National Trail.  The distance to Durlston Head is 18.8 km, closer than the 22.2km (12 nautical miles) recommended in the Government's strategic assessment (OESEA).

The energy generated offshore would need to be connected to the National Grid.  The onshore elements are as follows:

• The high voltage cables from the wind farm's offshore substations would make landfall at Taddiford Gap on Hordle Cliffs between Barton-on-Sea and Milford-on-Sea in Christchurch Bay and connect to onshore cables in an underground cable transition bay.
• A proposed underground 35km (22mile) cable route, up to 40m wide (the same as an 8 lane motorway) would carry these cables to a new onshore substation close to West Moors and Three Legged Cross, north of Ferndown.
  
• The electricity would then be transformed up to 400kV and connected to the adjacent Mannington substation, owned by the National Grid.

For a map of the proposed cable route click here.
You will need to enlarge the map to view where the route crosses SSSIs and Special Protection Areas.

Visualisations

We haven't had time to prepare a complete set of visualisations for the mitigation option.  However, we have produced a selection of photomontages which can you can download by clicking on the links below to the Inspectorate's website. We have used the new 2014 visualisation guidance to compute these images, whereas NBDL is still using the old 2006 guidance.
These visualisations are intended be printed for viewing, as PC screens do not have a high enough resolution to show the detail properly.  However, if you do view them on screen, try to use a High Definition monitor (at least 1920x1080 pixels) and zoom in until the photomontage fills the screen vertically. Then use the slider control to pan left and right across the image if necessary.

Swyre Head (Lulworth) (6MW) photomontage
St Aldhelms Chapel (6MW) photomontage
Durlston Country Park (6MW) photomontage
Durlston Country Park (6MW) panorama
Durlston Country Park (8MW) photomontage
Durlston Country Park (8MW) panorama
Durlston Castle (6MW) photomontage
Durlston Castle (6MW) panorama
Ballard Down (6MW) photomontage
Ballard Down (6MW) panorama
Studland Beach (6MW) photomontage
Hurst Spit (6MW) photomontage
Tennyson Monument (6MW) photomontage

Hard copies of NDBL's visualisations are now available at 4 libraries, click here for more details.