Forewind is a consortium comprising four leading international energy companies which joined forces to bid for the Dogger Bank Zone Development Agreement as part of The Crown Estate’s third licence round for UK offshore wind farms (Round 3).

Forewind Head of Development, Gareth Lewis says that to ensure the work on this huge project is managed effectively, and to evenly distribute the demand on those involved – from stakeholders to the supply chain - the zone will be developed in tranches. It will be divided into four large tranches, and each tranche will be further sub-divided into three separate similar-sized wind farm projects.

Work is already underway on the identification of the location of the three individual wind farm projects within Tranche A, each up to 1.4GW, as well as the three further development tranches.

Dogger Bank Project One will be the first project to be developed. It will comprise: the first of the wind farm locations identified within Tranche A, an export cable, and up to two onshore converter substations with associated infrastructure. Forewind has accepted a grid connection offer made by National Grid to connect Dogger Bank Project One into the existing Creyke Beck substation, near Cottingham in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

The first tranche is between 125km and 182km from shore, "reasonably free" of geographically specific consenting issues, has water depths generally shallower than 30m, and offers maximum design flexibility.

Forewind has the objective to achieve consent for a target installed capacity of 9GW of offshore wind farm projects by 2020, however the zone has the potential for up to 13GW. This figure equates to almost 10% of the UK’s projected electricity requirements.