PLANS have been unveiled for a £1.5 billion extension to a major wind farm off north Essex’s coastline.

The application will, if successful, see up to 71 wind turbines added to the Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm, located more than 20km off the north Essex coast, in the North Sea.

The existing site covers a total area of 150km² and already boasts 140 wind turbines within its fleet.

Now, plans for the new North Falls Offshore Wind Farm are in the early stages with the aim of starting construction in 2025 and the project being operational by 2030.

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A cashpot of £1.5 billion of potential investment has been made available with early projections suggesting the farm will supply more than 400,000 UK homes with clean, renewable power.

Plans for the farm remain at an early stage but the project will generate a range of socio-economic benefits, such as skilled new jobs and supply chain opportunities for businesses.

While the offshore site of the wind farm has been agreed, the location of the onshore infrastructure is yet to be determined as a grid connection location for the project has not yet been provided by National Grid.

It is likely, however, this connection will be located in north Essex, the developers have said.

The developers, a joint venture company owned equally by SSE Renewables and RWE, have now launched a consultation inviting residents to have their say on the plans.

Martin Whyte, project manager at North Falls, said: “North Falls is set to play a key role in the UK’s net zero ambitions, and while we do not yet have an onshore grid connection, we wanted to share our plans with communities.

“We will be able to give further details next year, however, as engagement with people is important to us, we wanted to introduce the project now, share the information we have and start to gather early input.

“Our need to cut emissions and decarbonise our energy generation network is being brought into sharp focus by the UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, which starts in Glasgow on Sunday.

“Recent issues around energy security have also highlighted the need to develop further home-grown sources of energy generation here in the UK.

“But the focus of this initial consultation is to introduce the North Falls project to communities in and around north Essex, share the information we have available at this early stage and give people a first opportunity to give us their views.”

The consultation is now open and runs until Friday, December 10.

To have your say and provide feedback, visit consultation.northfallsoffshore.com.