What happened? The Scottish Government has granted consent for SSE''s 4.1GW Berwick Bank offshore wind farm, located off the east coast of Scotland. The decision represents the last major consent necessary for the project to proceed, clearing the way for it to be bid into the upcoming AR7 CfD round. Company press release here. BNPP Exane View: It had been widely expected/hoped that a decision would come in time for the project to be bid into the AR7 renewable contract for difference (CfD) auction, which is currently getting underway and is expected to award support contracts around the end of this year. The approval is therefore a positive / confirmatory execution milestone for SSE. However, it''s likely to intensify scrutiny of SSE''s balance sheet given the size of the project. SSE would likely cover a significant proportion of capex with project financing and sell c60% of the equity after FID, substantially reducing net cash out. But on our numbers, which include a Berwick Bank COD in 2032 and 60% farm down in 2026, group credit metrics start to look stretched by the end of the decade. Despite a growing market view that SSE is less likely to need an equity raise after favourable-looking cashflow dynamics in the RIIO-T3 draft determination for power transmission, our view is that there would be some logic to raising in the next twelve months. In particular we think SSE may find it harder to raise once we get closer to the next UK elections in 2029, making the next ~2 years a lose-it-or-lose it fundraising window. Potential accretion from EBITDA upgrades at the start of RIIO-T3 would provide an EPS cushion to dilute against, and an AR7 contract for Berwick Bank would provide a valid pretext to rethink balance sheet needs over the next decade. We note that in most cases, companies in the sector that have raised over the last couple of years have not seen any lasting structural decline in their share prices; conversely several have seen shares rise...