News and Society

The £4.5bn complex would have 339 turbines covering 300 square kilometres off Caithness. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

The world's biggest offshore windfarm could be built off the northern Scottish coast, after a scheme with enough capacity to power 40% of Scottish households was submitted for planning permission.

The £4.5bn complex would have 339 turbines covering 300 square kilometres off Caithness, making it 50% bigger than the giant London Array scheme off Kent. It is expected to be the first in a series of deep water schemes under "Round 3" licensing.

The renewable industry has hailed it as a watershed moment but warned these new deep water farms might only be fully realised if the government provides policy stability by pushing through its proposed Energy Bill.

The 1.5-gigawatt farm is being developed by Moray Offshore Renewables, a joint venture between Spanish oil company Repsol, and an arm of Portuguese power group EDP, which has recently become partly owned by China's state-owned Three Gorges Corporation.

It has already attracted controversy because it is opposed by American billionaire Donald Trump, who says the 200-metre-high turbines will spoil the view from his planned new golf course.

Dan Finch, project director for the scheme due to come on stream in 2018, said working more than 12 miles from shore allowed it to take advantage of the excellent wind resource in the outer Moray Firth.

"We estimate that the project will be capable of supplying the electricity needs of 800,000 to 1m households ... Each year this development could save between 3.5m and 4.5m tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with coal fired generation, and between 1.5m and 2m tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with gas fired generation," he said.

The industry body, RenewableUK, said a further 4.5 gigawatts of offshore wind schemes should follow into the planning process this year with a total of 18 gigawatts expected to become operational over the next eight years.

But Maria McCaffery, RenewableUK's chief executive, emphasised that this progress could only be achieved if the policy certainty laid out in the upcoming Energy Bill was achieved.

"We're marking a watershed moment as Round Three starts to become a reality with this planning application. It's the first of many coming forward. As well as delivering secure supplies of low carbon electricity to British homes and businesses, our global leadership role in offshore wind can provide tens of thousands of jobs across the country, building and maintaining these turbines."

The Moray Firth wind farm, which will be given significant subsidies, compares with the 1-gigawatt at the London Array, which is currently in the construction phase, and compares with the largest British coal-fired plant, Drax in northern Yorkshire of 4 gigawatts, and the planned new EDF nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset with a combined output of 3.2 gigawatts and a bill of at least £10bn.

China Three Gorges Corporation acquired a 21% holding from the cash-strapped Portuguese government in Energias de Portugal, EDP, for €2.69bn (£2.13bn). The Beijing-based energy company was responsible for construction of the also controversial Three Gorges Dam-project, the world largest hydroelectric power plant, that went into operation in 2008.

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Serious flaws mean the competition to run the west coast line will be re-run, leaving Britain’s most lucrative train service in limbo. Photograph: composite

The Department for Transport has been left reeling after three senior civil servants were suspended over the collapse of the west coast main line franchise deal, leaving Britain's most lucrative train service in limbo and Sir Richard Branson's Virgin group triumphantly vindicated.

Shortly after midnight on Wednesday, the government was forced to concede that serious flaws meant the competition to operate the west coast line would have to be re-run, less than two months after FirstGroup had triumphed over Virgin Rail with a multibillion-pound bid.

The newly appointed transport secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, who had previously defended the bidding process in parliament as fair and robust, announced a pause in the franchising programme while the entire system was reviewed.

McLoughlin said he was angry and admitted the fault lay "only and squarely within the Department for Transport", adding that the mistakes were "deeply regrettable and unacceptable".

Transport secretary orders review of west coast bidding process. Link to this video

Taxpayers will pick up an immediate £40m bill for compensating the four shortlisted companies that bid for the west coast franchise. Beyond the compensation bill for those companies and others involved in franchise auctions that will now be paused, the department may also find itself a hostage to the operators running the rest of Britain's railways, as the timetable for renewing contracts slips. An industry source said: "I think they have no option but to extend franchises that are next for renewal. It will cost them a fortune."

Virgin Trains, which looked set for imminent extinction, is now confident it will be allowed to run the west coast service in the interim, and Branson said he hoped a new, transparent process would mean his company could also soon target the east coast line again.

It has emerged that the previous transport secretary, Justine Greening, had ordered an investigation in late August when she was first informed by officials that a "small procedural error" may have occurred. She is said to be "fully supportive" of McLoughlin's targeting of officials, who she believes suppressed information when giving categorical assurances that Virgin had no basis for a legal appeal.

But the news raises the question of whether ministers were reshuffled by David Cameron last month in part to save them from resigning. Greening's then deputy, the new Northern Ireland secretary Theresa Villiers, was a major proponent of controversial longer franchises and took the decision to give the west coast franchise to FirstGroup.

Shadow transport secretary Maria Eagle said: "The prime minister should come clean on when he knew, and on any connection with the decision to conduct a wholesale clearout of Tory transport ministers before this fiasco became public."

The DfT discovered the flaws as it was preparing to contest the judicial review Virgin sought in the high court after losing the franchise on 15 August. McLoughlin said: "Some of the points Richard Branson made were found to be correct, but there were things that were more wide-ranging … That's why I took the decision last night to go back to the drawing board."

A report into what went wrong with the west coast bidding process is due at the end of the month. Virgin's case was that the forecasts and figures from the DfT did not add up, leading to an excessive level of risk in FirstGroup's winning bid.

Virgin and McLoughlin held talks to discuss options on Wednesday evening. The transport secretary was set to invite the state-owned Directly Operated Railways (DOR) to run the service when the current franchise expires on 9 December, had Virgin's legal proceedings delayed the new contract with FirstGroup. That development hardened some Virgin insiders' view that a "hard core" at the department "just don't like us".

Branson had offered to run the service "for free" while the row was resolved but that offer is now likely to be moderated. Staff at Virgin believe the DOR option was intended "to rub our noses in it".

Branson said: "I'm pleased we didn't have to go to court and that the minister has been so fulsome in his apologies, and pleased that he's going to do a complete overhaul."

Richard Branson 'pleased' with decision to scrap west coast deal. Link to this video

The three unnamed civil servants were suspended by the department's permanent secretary, Philip Rutnam. "The errors exposed by our investigation are deeply concerning. They show a lack of good process and a lack of proper quality assurance," he said.

McLoughlin has ordered two independent reviews: in addition to the one due at end of the month, which will be overseen by Centrica's chief executive, Sam Laidlaw, there will be a second, under Eurostar chairman Richard Brown, which will examine the wider rail franchising programme to see what changes may be needed to get the other bidding procedures back on track. The three outstanding franchise auctions now on hold are Great Western, Essex Thameside and Thameslink.

Labour leader Ed Miliband branded the episode a "disgrace" and "another hopeless, shambolic piece of incompetence" from the government.

The leader of the RMT rail union, Bob Crow, said: "The whole sorry and expensive shambles of rail privatisation has been dragged into the spotlight this morning and instead of re-running this expensive circus, the west coast route should be renationalised on a permanent basis."

Opponents of HS2, the high-speed rail project, also seized on the news to demand a "root and branch examination" of the case for the new line. Figures and forecasts supplied by DfT officials have already been challenged.

A furious Tim O'Toole, the FirstGroup chief executive, said: "We don't have a clear understanding of what went wrong. We've been promised an explanation. The only thing they've made clear is that there was nothing wrong with our bid." Shares in FirstGroup fell almost 20% on the news.

FirstGroup's bid, with payments heavily loaded towards the back end of the 13-year franchise, offered premiums far in excess of the £190m bond it was offering as security. Virgin had described the winning bid as "preposterous" and a recipe for bankruptcy. The other two shortlisted bidders, Abellio and Keolis, backed by the Dutch and French state railways, bid far less even than Virgin.

Whoever takes over after 9 December, McLoughlin said passengers would continue to be served by the same trains and front-line staff.

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It pummeled the Mississippi Coast with relentless roundhouse jabs, while pinning southern Louisiana under a saturating rainfall. On its crawl up from the coast, Isaac dumped more than a foot of rain in some places and shoved before it a violent storm surge that would soon bring back the terrible old images of 2005: people marooned on rooftops, rescue workers breaking into attics with axes and the rescued clutching what little they had left.

The worst-hit part of the coast was Plaquemines Parish, La., the finger of land that follows the Mississippi River from Orleans Parish out into the Gulf of Mexico, and the place where both Isaac and Katrina first made landfall.

Fears that a locally built gulf-side levee would be overtopped by Isaac’s massive surge were well founded. Many of those on Plaquemines Parish’s east bank who ignored Monday’s order to leave were forced into their attics when the gulf poured in, filling up the bowl between the levees with up to 14 feet of water.

Dozens of people had to be pulled to safety by rescue workers and neighbors. As of Wednesday evening, water was beginning to creep up the west bank of the parish as well, prompting officials to go door to door to evacuate what is effectively the bottom two-thirds of the parish.

“We’ve never seen anything like this, not even Katrina,” said a visibly rattled Billy Nungesser, the parish president, in a briefing to reporters.

The same theme was repeated everywhere, by Kim Duplantier, a school principal whose home in Plaquemines had survived multiple hurricanes but was filled to ruin with water on Wednesday; by the mayor of Grand Isle, La., a coastal community that was flooded and cut off from the mainland; and by A. J. Holloway, the mayor of Biloxi, Miss., who now wishes he had ordered people to leave.

The skepticism with which Gulf Coast residents, including Mr. Holloway, viewed Isaac — which was downgraded from a Category 1 hurricane to a tropical storm by midafternoon on Wednesday — proved treacherous.

“I really didn’t anticipate this,” said Mr. Holloway, as he wheeled his sport utility vehicle to the edge of Highway 90, a cozy coastal road usually filled with carloads of beachgoers and casinogoers but now a steadily swelling river. “There’s a lot more water than I would have thought.”

In New Orleans, the decision by most residents to stay did not turn out to be disastrous. Trees were down across the city, and streets flooded, and three-quarters of the city was without power, as it will be for several days for more than 600,000 across the state, until the wind dies down enough for utility workers to come in. But despite a few nervous moments, the city’s all but finished $14.5 billion flood protection system seems to have worked.

Outside the city, severe flooding was widespread as Isaac sat defiantly on the coast. The National Hurricane Center expected the storm to drop up to 25 inches of rain in some areas. Officials said Wednesday night that they were working to evacuate up to 3,000 people from floodwaters in St. John the Baptist Parish, about 30 miles west of New Orleans. Tornado warnings were also in effect in several Mississippi counties.

Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana said Wednesday that more than 4,000 people were in shelters across the state, and that 5,000 members of the National Guard had been deployed to help in response efforts. What is perhaps most remarkable about the storm is that there are still no reported fatalities, especially considering the degree to which it caught gulf residents by surprise.

“Initially, the storm only being a tropical storm instead of a hurricane, many people, especially the people who live down there, didn’t have a whole lot of concern,” said Deano Bonano, an aide to a parish councilman, referring to the town of Lafitte outside the levee. By Wednesday afternoon, the bayou that splits the town was rising so rapidly that scores, if not hundreds, of people were facing potentially days of being cut off from the world.

“I think everyone was surprised by this,” said Denny Mecham, the executive director of the new Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi, which was inches from taking in water. “They try to prepare you, but for people who are used to a Cat. 3 or Cat. 5, this doesn’t seem like much,” she said. “Everyone was saying, ‘We’ll be open by Thursday morning.’ Well, this is not how this one is turning out.”

The same calculus was relied upon in Plaquemines (pronounced PLAK-uh-men) Parish, whose residents are almost by definition hardy and self-reliant. Shrimpers, oystermen, ranchers and workers in the oil patch live together on this stretch of coastline divided by the Mississippi River nearly from head to foot, and they have been through it all: multiple hurricanes, the worst of the BP oil spill and a preference for occupations that are not generally associated with comfort and security. The parish was largely walled out of the federal levee system, much to the anger of the residents. They know what that means.

“We knew it was a matter of time,” said Ms. Duplantier, 44, who moved with her husband to the now-submerged community of Braithwaite so they would have space to keep their horses, pigs, dogs, goats and cats. “We just figured we’d ride it out and see how long it would last. But we did not think in our wildest dreams that a Cat. 1 would do this.”

She evacuated, and her husband and her parents stayed behind to look after the animals. But they spent much of Wednesday watching the water rise, and were reached by boat after eight hours of being stranded. They had figured, she said, that “this was not the big one.”

Until it was. Solutions to getting the water out of the east bank of Plaquemines, which could take days to drain, are not straightforward. The Army Corps of Engineers is rounding up portable pumps from Baton Rouge and elsewhere that can pump floodwaters into the Mississippi, but such pumps are slow.

Mr. Nungesser, with the support of Mr. Jindal, said that the plan was to punch holes in the gulf levee to speed up the draining, as they did after Hurricane Gustav in 2008, and that a team could begin doing that as early as Thursday afternoon.

And still Isaac trudged on, drenching the towns of the north bank of Lake Pontchartrain on Wednesday night and heading at an agonizing 6 miles per hour in the direction of Baton Rouge. Officials warned that the risks were far from over, as flooding was a threat not only along the coast but in mid-Louisiana, upstate Mississippi and the drought-starved regions north. On Wednesday afternoon, Isaac was flooding towns farther inland with its unceasing rain, and was far from finished with southern Louisiana and the Gulf Coast.

“There is another half of the storm to go for most people who have already begun to experience it,” W. Craig Fugate, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said on a conference call with reporters. “For some folks in the path, the event and the weather haven’t even begun. We are still way early before this is all over.”

Campbell Robertson reported from New Orleans, and Kim Severson from Biloxi, Miss. David Thier contributed reporting from Plaquemines Parish, La., and John Schwartz from New Orleans. Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.

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Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is delivering a statement on Hurricane Isaac.

He says the storm is slow-moving – an hour ago it was moving at 10mph – and that some locations could see effects of the storm for up to 36 hours.

Jindal said it was possible that areas of New Orleans would experience 6-10 hours of hurricane force winds.

The storm's slow movement means more rain, 10-16 inches, Jindal says. Storm surges could top 10 feet, and the surges could come after the storm has passed.

"This is a slow-moving storm, so there are going to be many communities that face many hours of heightened wind strength" and rainfall, the governor says.

Localized flooding is expected.

Jindal says 41 parishes have declared emergencies. Seven parishes are at least partially evacuated.

This detail is in sharp contrast to Katrina: pods containing food and water to be used in an emergency already are being distributed around the city and state. Each pod can feed 5,000 people.

"Our plans are to have 40 pods available for southeast Louisiana," Jindal says.

The Dept. of Corrections has moved more than 2,000 inmates out of prisons and jails in vulnerable areas, Jindal says.

In addition, Inmate crews have assembled 98 kennels on five different trucks to help with pet evacuations.

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