Seagreen 1A Advances Through the Planning Committee

East Lothian Council’s Planning Committee has decided to unanimously approve variations to conditions that will support the progress of the Seagreen 1A onshore proposals at Cockenzie.

The proposed onshore works which would allow connection of the remaining 36 consented Seagreen offshore wind turbines to the grid, including the substation and the onshore underground cables, received planning permission in principle from East Lothian Council in August 2021.

The Seagreen 1A application site has different ‘Development Zones’, such as the substation zone and the underground cable zone, and the majority of the pre-commencement planning conditions in the consented application allow for the information necessary to discharge the conditions to be submitted for different phases of the project separately.

Seagreen sought to vary conditions 7, 11, 14 and 15 of the consented application as they require the information necessary to discharge them to be submitted for the full site rather than enabling the specific requirements for each Development Zone to be discharged separately. The variations do not affect the overall purpose or integrity of any of the conditions and the application received no objections from consultees.

Michael Walker, Lead Consents Manager for Seagreen, said: “We welcome the decision by East Lothian Council to vary these conditions and continue to support the Seagreen 1A onshore proposals.

“Seagreen will be Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm and the proposals will help Scotland reach a net-zero carbon future - the Council’s continued support for renewable energy and promoting the local supply chain is pivotal to us bringing forward the project.”