Offshore timelines slip as UK planning system is questioned

Thanet has helped Vattenfall become the second-largest offshore developer

Negotiations are hotting up for offshore wind turbine supply contracts, port sites and component supply deals, but developers and suppliers tell Recharge that timelines are slipping for most projects, and there are still widespread doubts about the effectiveness of the UK’s planning and regulatory system.

That leaves big question marks over the size of the market and how much turbine manufacturing will be needed up to 2020.

Thomas Arensbach, Gamesa’s director of offshore markets and project development, says “huge uncertainties” remain around the relatively untested Infrastructure Planning Commission, despite the UK’s “good” political environment for offshore wind.

Georg Friedrichs, head of offshore projects at Vattenfall — which is the second-largest developer in terms of offshore capacity — says companies continue to worry about planning.

He says work on the first project of the

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