Welcome
Thank you for taking the time to find out more about Morven Offshore Wind and the public consultation on the infrastructure in England. The non-statutory consultation on our proposals ran between 9 July 2024 and 3 September 2024 and provided the opportunity for stakeholders and the public to provide feedback on the plans. During the consultation, we held public information events at the Robin Todd Centre, Seaham Town Hall, the Glebe Centre and the team was available at Seaham Carnival. We were able to answer questions and provide more information on the search areas for the cable corridors and the land substation. We are carefully reviewing the feedback received, while continuing our technical studies to determine the most appropriate cable corridor onshore and offshore, along with more details on the land substation. There will be further public consultation as the project develops where you will be able to provide feedback on our more detailed proposals. Until then you can still contact us in any if the following ways:
Email us: info@morvenoffshorewind.com
Write to us: Freepost MORVEN
Call us: 0800 669 6110
About
The Morven Offshore Wind Farm will be connected to the electricity transmission network (sometimes referred to as "the grid") via two grid connections. This consultation is about the part of one of these grid connections that will be located in England.
The wind array is located in Scottish territorial waters approximately 60km from the coast and adjacent to the border of English territorial waters. The wind farm array consists of turbines and supporting foundations, inter-array cabling and offshore substation platforms. The infrastructure in England will be located near Seaham.
Morven Offshore Wind Limited (MvOWL) is developing the project and is a joint venture between bp and Energie Baden-Württemberg AG EnBW.
The project was awarded a license during the Crown Estate Scotland’s ScotWind Leasing Round in 2022.
Once operational, we estimate that the Morven Offshore Wind Farm will have the potential to provide enough electricity for the equivalent of around 3 million UK homes.
A coordinated approach
The Morven Offshore Wind project was scoped into the Pathway to 2030 Holistic Network Design workstream of the UK Government Offshore Transmission Network Review.
As part of this review, National Grid assessed options to improve the coordination of offshore wind farm connections and associated transmission networks. In July 2022, National Grid ESO published the 'Pathway to 2030 Holistic Network Design Report' which set out the approach to connecting 50GW of offshore wind to the grid. This concluded that the Morven Offshore Wind Project should connect the wind farm to the National Grid substation at Hawthorn Pit.
In March 2024, National Grid ESO published the 'Beyond 2030' report. This builds on the Holistic Network Design and makes a set of network recommendations to be implemented throughout the 2030s. This report recommends a second grid connection from the Morven Offshore Wind Project, connecting to a substation in the Branxton area, South East Scotland.
There will be a separate consultation for the electrical infrastructure required in Scotland and the wind the wind farm array.
View information hubAbout the Joint Venture partners
This project is being brought forward as a joint venture of bp and Energie Baden-Württemberg AG (EnBW).
About EnBW
EnBW is one of the largest energy supply companies in Germany and supplies electricity, gas, water and energy solutions, and energy industry services to around 5.5 million customers with a workforce of more than 27,000 employees. It aims to strengthen its position as a sustainable and innovative infrastructure partner for customers, citizens and local authorities to an even greater extent.
The repositioning of EnBW with a focus on renewable energies and smart infrastructure solutions is a key component of its strategy. With a focus on renewable energy and smart infrastructure solutions, EnBW’s objective is for half of the electricity it supplies to be from renewable sources by the end of 2025. This is already having a noticeable effect on the reduction of CO2 emissions, which EnBW aims to halve by 2030 and to be climate neutral by 2035. EnBW has been involved in the operation of hydro power plants in the Black Forest for more than 100 years and has a large and continuously growing number of onshore wind farms and solar photovoltaics in Germany, France and Sweden. In addition, EnBW developed, constructed and operates four offshore wind farms in Germany (EnBW Baltic 1, Baltic 2, Hohe See and Albatros) with a total installed capacity of 945 MW, commissioned between 2011 and 2020. A further 900 MW offshore wind farm, He Dreiht, is currently under development in Germany.
About bp
bp has set out an ambition to be a net-zero company by 2050 or sooner, and to help the world get to net zero. bp has set out a strategy for delivering this ambition. bp is focused on delivering its transformation into an integrated energy company, helping to provide the energy the world needs today – which is mainly oil and gas - and investing in the energy transition.
bp is investing in offshore wind, and is working towards safely developing and operating a multi-gigawatt global pipeline over the next decade. We have an offshore wind pipeline of 9.6GW net with planned projects in the US, the UK, Germany as well as partnerships in Asia. In the UK, bp and EnBW are leading the development of plans for the Morgan and Mona offshore wind projects in the Irish Sea and the Morven offshore wind project in the North Sea.
These projects have a combined potential generating capacity of 5.9 GW, sufficient to power the equivalent of around 6 million UK households. bp and its partners are working to obtain the necessary consents and approvals for all of these projects.