GRID CONNECTIONS
FEATURE SPONSOR
GRID CONNECTIONS FOR OFFSHORE WIND FARMS
WEAK LINK IN THE CHAIN
Royal HaskoningDHV adapted from a Siemens image
There is an expression that ‘a chain is only as strong as the weakest link’. Grid connections are often proving to be the proverbial ‘weak link’ in the development of offshore wind farms.
MEDIA FOCUS
There is a lot of focus by the media, developers and stakeholders on the offshore issues surrounding the deployment of offshore wind farms. Constraints such as the cost and time required for large scale offshore surveys, the potential impacts on commercial fisheries, marine mammals and birds, to name a few.
These offshore, often over the horizon, issues are important and are rightly the focus of much scrutiny. However, the majority of people on the ground; landowners, stakeholders and local communities are, in our experience, more concerned about impacts to the countryside from new overhead lines, buried cable routes and in particular the required large substations and converter stations.
Issues such as construction traffic, damage to soils and agricultural drainage systems, loss of hedgerows and habitats, in particular noise and visual impacts from substations and overhead lines are often controversial. For these stakeholders, impacts far out to sea are abstract, they can’t see or hear the wind farm, and few outside the maritime community are affected.
Onshore, the road closures, construction lorries, gaps in hedgerows, footpath closures, disruption to farming and fears over house prices in areas near to new onshore infrastructure are very easy to imagine.
CONSENTING PROCESS
The result of these concerns and issues is that the consenting process for the onshore infrastructure is becoming increasingly complex and contentious. In addition to the more apparent impacts from the onshore infrastructure, by nature of its location,
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www.windenergynetwork.co.uk GENUINE CONCERNS
Once the onshore elements of an offshore wind farm become public knowledge there are genuine concerns from multiple onshore stakeholders regarding the effects of the development.
than the often out of sight impacts of the offshore infrastructure, another aspect that increases the difficulty of achieving consent for the onshore infrastructure is the nature of the stakeholders themselves.
OFFSHORE AND ONSHORE STAKEHOLDERS
Offshore stakeholders tend to be fewer in number, with greater understanding of the issues and the process and with fairly well defined interests or agendas. These stakeholders are often well organised and well briefed, with strong lobbies or representatives. Examples include fishermen’s associations, nature conservation organisations and large national departments and organisations such as the MMO, MoD and DECC. These core groups often have national policies and agendas with dedicated professionals to debate impacts and negotiate mitigations and agreements.
In contrast the onshore stakeholders tend to be greater in number, less informed, hold more diverse positions and are generally less organised with fewer resources in terms of funding or professional representation. This situation is also getting arguably worse over time, rather than better, with
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