The company behind a giant offshore windfarm in the North Sea has slashed the planned output from the project.
The Triton Knoll farm, off the Lincolnshire coast, had originally been planned to produce up to 1.2GW of electricity to the grid with around 300 turbines being built 20miles offshore.
But now operators RWE Innogy have halved that, confirming the design for the field would now see a reduced capacity of between 600MW and 900MW.
The decision comes just weeks after the £5billion Argyll Array wndfarm near Tiree and the £3billion Atlantic Array near Devon – which would have been of similar size to the original Triton Knoll plans – were axed.
Jacob Hain, project manager on Triton with RWE Innogy, said the scaled back plans were the most efficient for the project, which will provide power for between 550,000 and 800,000
“The recent optimisation work is part of a project review to make the site more competitive and more economic in line with Government proposals to bring down the cost of offshore wind,” he said.
The new plans for the site will also see the size of the onshore operation reduced by more than half, after further design work on the substation.
Communities around the project site, which was originally expected to cost more than £3.6billion, will now be consulted on the onshore infrastructure plans before the planning process begins.
“This is an important step forward for the development,” said Hain.
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