The information on this page was correct at the time of publishing (July 2023). The project has since evolved and we would encourage you to read our September update for more information.

High level overview

The North Falls Non-technical Summary (NtS) is a 70-page standalone document providing an overview of the potential environmental effects of North Falls in relatively non-technical terms. The full details for each area presented in the NtS can be found in the North Falls Preliminary Environmental Information Report, however it is useful to start with this summary document before moving on to the details in the full PEIR.

As well as describing the project, the NtS explains the need case for North Falls, details how different aspects of the project have been selected and explains the environmental impact assessment work to date. It outlines the role of national policy statements in the decision making process plus the role of other relevant policies, and covers the project's consultation activity and approach. You can also read more about the approach to consultation in the North Falls Statement of Community Consultation (see link opposite).

The core of the summary document focuses on the project itself with a project description, including offshore and onshore works, and a summary of the design parameters. Its structure and content align to the topics which are covered in the PEIR as follows:

The full introduction to the PEIR can be found in:

View Chapter 1 Introduction

Download Non-technical Summary

Download Statement of Community Consultation

Offshore

  • Marine geology, oceanography and physical processes

  • Marine water and sediment quality

  • Benthic and intertidal ecology

  • Fish and shellfish ecology

  • Marine mammals

  • Offshore ornithology

  • Commercial fisheries

  • Shipping and navigation

  • Offshore and intertidal archaeology and cultural heritage

  • Aviation and radar

  • Infrastructure and other users

Download North Falls offshore project area map

Onshore

  • Ground conditions and contamination

  • Onshore air quality

  • Water resources and flood risk

  • Land use and agriculture

  • Onshore ecology

  • Onshore ornithology

  • Onshore archaeology and cultural heritage

  • Noise and vibration

  • Traffic and transport

Project-wide

  • Human health

  • Seascape, landscape and visual impact assessment

  • Landscape visual impact assessment

  • Socio-economics

  • Tourism and recreation

  • Climate change

The North Falls Non-technical Summary includes a number of tables, plates and figures to support the chapters, for example the North Falls onshore and offshore project area maps shown opposite.

Download North Falls onshore project area map

Conclusion

The NtS ends with a conclusion section as well as references. For all the offshore topics and for most of the onshore topics, the preliminary project assessments have concluded that, with mitigation, there would be no significant adverse effects in environmental impact assessment terms other than the following where significant residual effects have been identified:

  • Land use and agriculture, with permanent loss of agricultural land during operation of the onshore substation; and

  • Onshore ecology, with temporary loss of some hedgerows and associated temporary impacts on bats and dormice. Replanting of hedgerows post-construction should lead to moderately beneficial impacts in the longer term.

For project-wide topics, significant effects have been identified in relation to:

  • Seascape, landscape and visual, due to the visibility of the wind farm from certain areas of the coast during its operation. This will influence the seascape and landscape character; and

  • Landscape and visual with respect to effect on the landscape fabric and visual amenity of the onshore substation zone during the construction and operation of the project.

Beneficial effects were identified for a number of topics, including around onshore ecology due primarily to the project's commitment to biodiversity net gain; socio-economics, with skills and supply chain opportunities, and contribution to combatting climate change.

North Falls has committed to implementing mitigation measures to ensure that any potential impacts are minimised as far as reasonable and practicable, and to reduce the potential for significant effects.

To read about all the proposed mitigation measures for each of the potential impacts you can read the:

Schedule of Mitigation

Key facts and figures

Located 22 kilometres off the UK coast in the southern North Sea, covering an area of 150 km2 across two sites

Up to 72 turbines, depending on the size of turbine selected

Up to two offshore substations/platforms to facilitate the export of electricity to an onshore or an offshore connection point

An onshore grid connection would mean around 24 kilometres of underground onshore cable to transport the power from landfall to the new onshore substation

The onshore substation would have a footprint around four times the size of the existing Lawford Substation, with similar surrounding landscaping

Likely investment in UK electricity infrastructure of more than £1.5 billion

Potential to supply more than 400,000 UK homes with their annual electricity needs using clean renewable power depending on final installed capacity

Contributing to the UK government's ambitions of 50GW of offshore wind by 2030 (current figure is around 14GW)

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North Falls is being developed by a joint venture company owned equally by SSE Renewables and RWE.