​The government has finally given approval for a huge new wind farm with the capacity to power more than a million homes with clean, green energy. The offshore development, located off the Yorkshire coast, will be the second-largest wind farm in the UK and see 180 turbines being installed in more than 43 square miles of sea.

A planning application for the Hornsea Four project was made by Orsted two years ago, but it took that long for the government to finally approve it. This week, Grant Shapps, the energy security secretary, gave approval to the proposed plans, which will be run by the Danish power giant, Orsted.

Orsted will act as both owner and operator of the site and take on operational control of the three other Hornsea wind projects.

The proposed new wind farm will produce more than 2.6GW of clean energy; more than a nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point C. The hope is that this latest development will help push Britain towards its 50GW goal of clean offshore wind energy by 2030.

Yorkshire is one of the most significant focal zones for renewable energy development, and the existing Hornsea Three is already the biggest offshore wind project in existence in the UK, generating 2.9 GW of clean power.

Hornsea Two is another major working offshore wind farm in British waters and generates 1.4GW. It was fully commissioned last summer, whilst the first development in the series, Hornsea One, began operating in 2020 and now generates 1.2GW of clean power.

Although the news is positive for the clean energy sector and for Britain's ambitions to become a net-zero carbon economy, it also highlights the difficulty that developers have when proposing projects that require government approval.