Phase two of the site could have brought world-leading floating offshore wind technology to North East waters
Four of five new wind turbines at the Blyth offshore wind farm, built by EDF Energy(Image: PA)
Plans to bring a floating offshore wind farm to waters off the Northumberland coast have been scrapped.
EDF Renewables UK, part of the French energy giant, said it had made the “difficult decision” not to progress the Blyth 2 offshore wind farm project, which were once touted as a first in English waters. The project would have extended the Blyth Offshore Demonstrator wind farm to include float and submerge gravity base foundation technology – adding 58.4 megawatts (MW) of capacity to the existing 41.5MW fixed wind farm, which is unaffected by the decision and continues to operate.
The Blyth demonstrator was launched with five wind turbines in 2017 and proposals to expand the site with the float and submerge technology were announced in 2021. Later that year, Malasyian utility company Tenaga Nasional Berhad acquired a 49% stake in the project via its subsidiary Vantage RE.
With consent for 99.9MW of capacity in place, phase two of the project had intended to bring up to five more turbines to a site about 14km from the shore, in waters about 55metres deep. The turbines would have been built on floating substructures and EDF had been working with the nearby Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult among other research organisations to develop a design for the project which had been intended to demonstrate the potential for reduced cost offshore wind developments
Now, news of EDF’s decision to abandon the plans comes hot on the heels of the Governments latest Contracts for Difference auction which saw Erebus, in the Celtic Sea, and Pentland in Scotland secure contracts. The AR7 round secured a record capacity of 8.4 gigwatts spanning eight projects.
The successful projects include Berwick Bank in the North Sea – the first new Scottish project since 2022 – and projects at Dogger Bank South, off the coast of Yorkshire, and Norfolk Vanguard, off the East Anglian coast. The Government – which nearly doubled the original £900m budget for fixed bottom offshore wind to £1.8bn – said the projects would put the country on track to achieve its 2030 clean power goals.
An EDF power solutions spokesperson said: “After careful consideration, EDF power solutions UK has made the difficult decision to not progress the Blyth 2 Offshore Wind Farm project. EDF power solutions UK remains dedicated to contributing to the development and growth of offshore wind through other projects.
“We continue to develop a pipeline of projects across onshore wind, offshore wind, solar and battery, and we are committed to playing our part in accelerating the UK to net zero and enhancing our energy security.”
