The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry has granted consents under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 for the construction and operation of the gas generating station and wind farm that comprise the Ormonde project.

The consents are being granted to Eclipse Energy Company Limited (EECL) and Ormonde Energy Limited (a Majority owned subsidiary of EECL). This innovative hybrid project will be sited around 10 km from Walney Island and has the potential to generate a total of up to 200 MW of electricity, with around half coming from the wind farm.

The decision to grant the consents was taken after a thorough consideration of the possible impacts of the project on a range of environmental and other issues and interests and of the advice received from a range of stakeholders, including statutory consulters on navigation and nature conservation issues. The Secretary of State concluded that the impacts envisaged by those making representations will either be of low significance or can be mitigated or avoided by the use of suitable conditions in the Electricity Act consents or in the licence for the project that is to be issued by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs under the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985.

The Secretary of State will, in due course, announce the outcome of an application for the grant of approval for the proposed Ormonde gas field development under the separate Petroleum Act 1998 regime, relating to the extraction of gas from the sea bed. Today's announcement does not pre-judge the outcome of that application.