Components of DBS

High voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system

The DBS projects' electricity transmission system would include four HVDC converter stations — two offshore and up to two onshore.

The offshore converter stations would be located on platforms at the heart of the wind turbine arrays, while the onshore converter stations would be located in structures located to the southwest of Beverley, near the village of Bentley in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The largest part of the onshore converter stations would be the valve hall with an approximate height of 24m. This houses specialist electrical equipment to convert the generated electricity to 400 kV before feeding it into the national grid via the proposed Birkhill Wood National Grid substation near Creyke Beck.

We have prepared a landscape management plan for the onshore converter stations that includes planting a native mix of trees which, after eight to ten years of growth, would average about 10m in height and soften the appearance of the structures within the landscape.

Visualisation showing Proposed Onshore Converter Stations from Coppleflat Lane, Bentley – with no mitigation planting

Visualisation showing Proposed Onshore Converter Stations from Coppleflat Lane, Bentley – with mitigation planting at year 10

Offshore foundations

The 200 wind turbines and the three offshore platforms (two converter platforms and one accommodation platform) require foundations. Seabed and subsea bed investigations have been conducted to inform engineers about the site conditions so the best foundation designs can be engineered for each offshore structure.

Find out more

Temporary onshore construction compounds

To facilitate construction, temporary compounds and access points will be used and removed after completion. At certain locations, trenchless crossing techniques such as horizontal directional drilling (HDD) will allow onshore export cables to pass beneath features like rivers, roads, or hedgerows, without surface disruption.

For more detailed information about the projects and the assessments conducted during development, please refer to the Non-Technical Summary.

Graphic to illustrate how the offshore export cables come ashore under the beach and connect with the onshore export cables at the transition joint bay.

Offshore and onshore cables

Offshore, turbines would deliver electricity to the offshore converter station by inter-array cables. From here, electricity would be sent via offshore export cables to the landfall point on the coast at Skipsea. Both the inter-array and offshore export cables would be buried in the seabed.

At the landfall, the offshore export cables would come ashore beneath the beach and connect to the onshore export cable at a transition joint bay. From there, electricity would be transmitted to the onshore converter stations via 32km of underground export cable.