Dogger Bank South: Tiny hamlet near Beverley to host huge electricity substations for £11bn offshore wind farms

Dogger Bank South (DBS) East and DBS West – costing up to £11bn – will be constructed by German energy giant RWE 110km out to sea.

Almost five times as big as London Array, together they could generate renewable power for up to 3.4 millon homes.

Cables from the two farms will make landfall at Skipsea and then go underground to the two new substations at Bentley before connecting with the National Grid at nearby Creyke Beck.

Standing up to 27m tall, they will occupy a footprint of 200,000 square metres – around twice that of Wembley Stadium.

Over the summer consultation events in the East Riding were attended by nearly 400 people.

All cables will be buried, RWE said in its latest newsletter, and a route has been chosen to avoid Beverley Westwood and Burton Bushes which contains a fragment of ancient woodland.

A decision was made against building the substations at a site north of the A1079, closer to Beverley. Instead they will go up side by side at Bentley, south of the A1079. Building will start at the earliest in late 2025.

Beverley Civic Society chair Richard Lidwell said: “There’ll be a big impact on the local landscape and it’ll be upsetting for people who live in Bentley. But we must develop green energy and compromises have to be made for the greater good.”

During construction, the project should support more than 2,000 full-time equivalent jobs, and a further 1,000 direct and indirect jobs during operations.

The company said in its newsletter that it planned “to maximise potential for the benefit of local businesses, create new, high quality long-term jobs, support new skills development, and wherever possible, ensure that all localised options are explored”. On Friday at Cop28, in Dubai, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that RWE and United Arab Emirates state-owned renewable energy company Masdar had struck a deal.

Masdar will acquire a 49 per cent stake while RWE, with a 51 per cent share, remains in charge of development, construction and operation throughout the life cycle of the projects.

Markus Krebber, CEO of RWE AG, said : “We’re delighted to welcome Masdar onboard as our partner and co-investor in the delivery of our Dogger Bank South projects which, at 3GW in size, make up RWE’s largest offshore wind development in the UK.

“With Masdar, we have a strong and renowned partner at our side who shares our ambition to further drive the growth of offshore wind energy. In combination with RWE’s many years of experience in the development, construction and operation of offshore wind farms, we are in an excellent position to strongly support the decarbonisation of the UK.”