Galloper’s £1.5bn wind farm off Suffolk coast gets green light
German utilities giant RWE has been given the go-ahead to build a £1.5bn wind farm off the coast of Suffolk, creating nearly 800 jobs, after it found three partners to back the project.
The Galloper wind farm’s future was jeopardised when electricity and gas supplier SSE shelved plans to invest in it, citing concerns over the viability of the UK's offshore wind sector.
But RWE today announced the UK's Green Investment Bank, Siemens Financial Services and Macquarie Capital had become 25 per cent equity partners.
Construction on the project, which will power up to 336,000 homes, will begin in November, and operations are expected to start in March 2018.
Read more: Dong Energy to build world's biggest wind farm in the Irish Sea off UK coast
The announcement comes days after Denmark’s Dong Energy revealed plans to build the world’s largest offshore wind farm in the Irish Sea, just off the UK coast.
Offshore wind projects have been left largely protected from the government’s sweeping cuts to renewables subsidies.
Energy minister Andrea Leadsom said: "This is fantastic news for the region and the whole of the UK, reflecting the fact that we are open for business and the best place in the world to invest in offshore wind."
"This milestone shows how the UK’s offshore wind industry is going from strength to strength."