STOP the needless destruction of our Coast and Countryside by National Grid.

Keep offshore wind energy infrastructure offshore and connect to the grid onshore using brownfield sites.

▪︎ CHEAPER for UK Consumers

▪︎ QUICKER to net zero.

▪︎ BETTER for the ENVIRONMENT and COMMUNITIES.
(see evidence below)

To save our coasts and countryside from needless destruction please sign our petition.

See how RALPH FIENNES describes the THREAT to the Countryside in the video below.

 

 

VISIT our website SEAS - Suffolk Energy Action Solutions for more information

Please donate HERE if you are able to support us.

SIGN our petition to demand an offshore transmission network and please ask your friends and families to sign too. If we reach 100,000 we could demand a debate in Parliament.

National Grid is continuing to say an offshore grid is more expensive when it is not in the long term. They do not include the other developers costs for multiple onshore substations or the miles and miles of cable trenches and pylons. National Grid’s short term thinking does not take into account the savings on these and the savings on shorter subsea cable runs resulting in less damage to the seabed.

Their claims are not based on the TOTAL costs involved but just their National Grid costs. 

National Grid PLC are 100% privatised, a commercial organisation mainly owned by International investment companies. Their primary goal is to increase profits for shareholders, not necessarily to get value for money for UK consumers or to make the best decisions for future generations.

Cheaper, Quicker, Better Evidence:

Cheaper
• Pooling energy offshore gives overall asset cost efficiencies, e.g. fewer substations and cable trenches onshore (50% less onshore infrastructure and impact).
• National Grid's own figures from their 2020 report (p.15) conclude there would be a c.£2bn (30%) cost saving for East Anglia alone, by using a network design with significant offshore coordination (pooling offshore / offshore grid) and taking power offshore closer to demand, compared to a radial solution (where each project connects to the nearest point on the coast).

Quicker
• Transporting power offshore using subsea cables with landfall at brownfield sites, reduces delays associated with onshore consenting processes; National Grid was only too pleased to announce that Eastern Green Link 2, a subsea HVDC cable between brownfield sites Peterhead in Scotland and Drax in Yorkshire, taking power closer to where it is needed, had planning consent by all necessary authorities approved in record time.

Better
• Significantly reduced impact (Figure 2-4 p.10) on environment and communities, due to greatly reduced landfalls and onshore impact (see table 2-3 p.11 / c.30% of the onshore footprint required without offshore coordination)

This is a nationwide issue. Campaign groups in Scotland, North West England, Wales, Cornwall, Devon, Kent, East Anglia, Lincolnshire and the North East are fighting to save what precious coast and countryside remains for future generations.  

The adverse impacts are wide-ranging. Ecosystems, wildlife and environment biodiversity destroyed. Tourism economies will suffer dreadfully. 

We urge the media to focus on the benefits of offshore solutions and brownfield sites.

An offshore grid using the North Sea as a transmission corridor, taking power closer to demand and then onshore at brownfield sites, would reduce the number of massive onshore substations and converters, and reduce the need for destructive cabling and pylons, leaving our precious virgin countryside for future generations.

SEAS Campaign
Suffolk Energy Action Solutions known as the SEAS campaign, supports offshore wind energy, but not National Grid’s current destructive plans.  

For five years, we have been calling for offshore solutions: pooling offshore wind energy at offshore platforms, taking the power subsea direct to brownfield sites closer to where the power is needed.  

European Models
This is exactly what all other leading European wind power countries are doing building their modular offshore grids. Holland has chosen a brownfield site by Rotterdam to connect North Sea wind power to the grid, Belgium has chosen its hub at Zeebrugge.  

In the UK, to connect energy from North Sea wind farms off the Suffolk Coast to the grid, National Grid has chosen Friston, a medieval village, Saxmundham, a historic market town and Aldeburgh, a Nature tourism destination next to one of RSPB’s oldest reserves ‘Minsmere’.

Onshore Infrastructure will Industrialise Coastal Suffolk.
The onshore infrastructure proposed is of an unprecedented scale and impact on the landscape at both Friston and Saxmundham. In totality it will take up over 40 hectares at minimum, the equivalent of 80 football pitches and the three or possibly four converter stations will each be at 26m high. They are concrete monoliths and even if they are cosmetically softened they will dominate the landscape, effectively industrialising Suffolk Heritage Coast.

PLEASE SAVE our COASTS and COUNTRYSIDE from NEEDLESS DESTRUCTION, sign our Petition.

As Ralph Fiennes points out in the film, National Grid is not under national British ownership, but is publicly owned by global international investment companies.

There has been no master plan, no long-term thinking, pitiful investment in the physical transmission network, and short-term quick and easy schemes have been awarded at the expense of UK communities. 

It is not too late to stop these current ill-conceived proposals. They have been described as environmental vandalism.

It’s time for the British people to stand together, united against the current process and plans. 

PLEASE SAVE our COASTS and COUNTRYSIDE from NEEDLESS DESTRUCTION.

See Ralph Fiennes' impassioned interview on BBC1 Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg on the 11th of February. 

 

 

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