North Falls Offshore Wind Farm Gets Go Ahead

15th May 2026

The North Falls Offshore Wind Farm application has today been granted development consent by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

North Falls Offshore Wind Farm will generate around 1 GW of electricity — enough to power roughly 400,000 UK homes — and has now received planning consent.

Capacity & Homes Powered
Generating capacity: up to 1 GW (1,000 MW)

Homes powered: approximately 400,000 homes
(based on Greater Gabbard’s output, which North Falls will exceed or match)

Both the project website and the planning approval confirm that North Falls will supply “hundreds of thousands of homes”, with the project’s own figures specifying around 400,000.

Location
40 km off the East Anglia coast in the southern North Sea

95 km² offshore array area

Infrastructure
Up to 57 turbines

Up to two offshore substations

24 km of onshore export cables (landfall near Kirby Brook → substation near Ardleigh, Essex)

Timeline
Agreement for Lease: 2020

DCO application submitted: July 2024

Examination completed: July 2025

Planning consent granted: 14 May 2026
Next steps:
Final design
Contract for Difference bid
Final Investment Decision

Who Owns It?
A 50/50 joint venture between:
SSE Renewables
RWE Offshore Wind

North Falls is a major 1 GW offshore wind project capable of powering around 400,000 homes, extending the existing Greater Gabbard wind farm and contributing significantly to UK energy security and decarbonisation.

The application is for an offshore electricity generating station approximately 24.5km from its nearest point at the Port of Lowestoft. It is estimated to have an installed capacity in excess of 100MW and will principally comprise offshore wind turbines together with associated infrastructure (onshore and offshore) including a connection to the electricity transmission network.

The application was submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for consideration by North Falls Offshore Wind Farm Ltd on 26 July 2024 and accepted for examination on 22 August 2024.

Following an examination during which the public, statutory consultees and interested parties were given the opportunity to give evidence to the Examining Authority, recommendations were made to the Secretary of State on 28 October 2025.

This is the 107th energy application out of 175 applications examined to date and was again completed by the Planning Inspectorate within the statutory timescale laid down in the Planning Act 2008.

Local communities continue to be given the opportunity of being involved in the examination of projects that may affect them. Local people, the local authority and other interested parties were able to participate in this six-month examination.

The Examining Authority listened and gave full consideration to all local views and the evidence gathered during the examination before making its recommendation to the Secretary of State.

The decision, the recommendation made by the Examining Authority to the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero and the evidence considered by the Examining Authority in reaching its recommendation are publicly available on the project pages of the National Infrastructure Planning website.

This decision was made by Lord Whitehead on behalf of the Energy Secretary’s legal authority.