Consent for Lincs 250 MW project

Energy company Centrica has been granted government consent for its 250 MW Lincs offshore wind project off the east coast of England. Up to 70 turbines will be installed in the Greater Wash, eight kilometres east of Skegness in Lincolnshire and next to Centrica's 180 MW Lynn and Inner Dowsing wind farm currently being commissioned. Lincs is the eighth project in the UK's second round of offshore wind development to be approved for construction. It brings consented, operating or building offshore capacity off the UK coast to 4684 MW. "We currently have over 1500 MW of offshore wind either operating or under construction in the UK," said energy minister Mike O'Brien in making the Lincs announcement. "This time next year, we should be celebrating passing the 1 GW mark for offshore wind generation... and the 4 GW mark for total wind power." Centrica is negotiating turbine supply and expects the machines at Lincs to be of similar size to the 3.6 MW Siemens turbines at Lynn and Inner Dowsing. The construction timescale will be dictated by supply chain availability, the company says.