Developer Innogy’s has been cleared to use up-to-20MW turbines on it giant Sofia wind power project in the UK North Sea, following approval by the British authorities of plans to expand the development’s maximum installed capacity by 200MW to 1.4GW.

The approval – greenlighted by the Marine Management Organisation in line with changes to the development consent order decided recently by the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in (BEIS) Greg Clark – rubber-stamps the developer using machines with maximum rotor diameter of 288 metres, up from the 215 metres specified in the original consent.