As SSE Renewables secured another marine licence, Prime Minister Andy Burnham highlighted Berwick Bank B as part of the UK’s “major investment in UK renewables” before travelling to COP31, the United Nations annual Climate Change conference in Türkiye. Other responses focused on ecological concerns, centred around the risk to seabirds.
“SSE Renewables has secured a marine licence from the UK’s Marine Management Organisation (MMO) for the export cable infrastructure of its Berwick Bank C offshore wind farm in English waters, completing the required consents for the project’s grid connection.
Known as the Cambois Connection, the infrastructure will link the offshore wind farm to the national transmission network at Cambois, near Blyth in Northumberland.
The MMO’s decision follows the consent granted by the Scottish Government in July 2025 for the three-phase, 4.1 GW Berwick Bank in Scottish waters.
Berwick Bank C is the third phase of SSE’s Berwick Bank offshore wind project, located in the outer Firth of Forth, approximately 38 kilometres east of the Scottish coast. The wider development is planned across three phases of roughly equal size.
The Berwick Bank project has two grid connection points, one at Branxton near Skateraw, Dunbar in East Lothian and one in Blyth, Northumberland. The export cables connecting to Branxton received the Scottish Government’s consent in July 2025, when the offshore wind project was approved. The latest marine licence completes the required consents for the Cambois connection, which will serve the project’s third phase, Berwick Bank C.
The developer recently named Seaway7 as the preferred supplier for the engineering, procurement, construction and installation of Berwick Bank B foundations and inter-array cables.”
Information source and credit for text: OffshoreWIND.biz
Background (January 2026)
“SSE’s 4.1GW Berwick Bank Offshore Wind Farm was consented in July 2025 and represents the potential of further critical infrastructure delivery by SSE for the UK, contributing to long-term energy security and clean power targets.
If built to its full capacity, Berwick Bank could become the world’s largest offshore wind farm on completion, capable of generating enough homegrown electricity to power around 6.5 million UK homes annually* and meeting more than 6% of current UK electricity demand…
Berwick Bank B forms part of SSE’s wider 4.1GW Berwick Bank Offshore Wind Farm project. In January, the 1.4GW project secured a 20-year Contract for Difference (CfD) for offshore wind generation through Allocation Round 7 of the UK Government’s CfD scheme, providing long-term revenue certainty for the project.
SSE is now progressing Berwick Bank B towards a Final Investment Decision (FID), expected late next year. Once approved for delivery, preparatory offshore construction works on Berwick Bank B could commence in 2028, with foundation and inter-array cable installation beginning in 2029 and completing in 2031.” SSE