Huge wind farm in the North Sea given the go-ahead

Planning permission was granted this lunchtime for the world's largest offshore wind farm.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd gave the green light to the Dogger Bank Teesside A & B project, which will cover an area of 600 square kilometres in the North Sea.

Dogger Bank A & B will be located 102 miles from the North East coast and when completed each site, with 200 turbines, will be able to generate 1.2 gigawatts of energy - enough to power the annual electricity needs of two million British homes.

The project could create up to 4,750 direct and indirect jobs and generate more than £1.5 billion for the UK economy over its lifetime, according to the project’s developers RWE, SSE, Statkraft and Statoil – the Forewind consortium.

Forewind received approval for a another installation, Dogger Bank Creyke Beck, in Feburary this year.

The Teesside A&B site is located farther from the shore, but in one of the shallowest areas of the North Sea, which makes construction easier. Wind speeds are also high, making the area ideal for offshore energy production.

The turbines themselves will stand 100m above sea level in water that is 25m deep. However their foundations will be drilled a further 40m into the seabed.

The power from Dogger Bank Teesside will come to shore on Teesside between Redcar and Marske-by-the–Sea. The nine kilometre onshore cable will connect to the national grid at an existing Substation in Lackenby,

The announcement will come as a boost to the UK renewable energy industry after the government made large cuts to subsidies for the sector earlier this year.