ROYAL HASKONING
The wind energy industry and the environment
Royal Haskoning’s duty of care
With enviable wind resources to exploit and ambitious renewable energy generation targets to meet, moving wind farms offshore seemed like an obvious solution. The launch of Thanet and emerging Round 3 projects has set Britain on an exciting course; the UK is now the world leader in offshore wind in terms of installed capacity.
This trend is set to continue. Over half the 3.5GW of offshore wind farms currently under construction are in UK waters and these developments have been far from simple.
However, the ‘race for wind’ has also thrown up a number of new and complicated hurdles to overcome, and highlighted that the industry and the Government still has a huge amount of learning to do. Challenges exist across all elements of these projects.
NEW ISSUES ARE ARISING ALL THE TIME, AND INCLUDE
• Consenting sites in more challenging offshore environments
• Transporting ever larger turbine components to where they need to be – both onshore and offshore
• Continually evolving solutions to meet ecological requirements
• Analysing resource capacity, geophysical and geotechnical features, and data analysis to maximise return on investment
• Designing suitable foundation options for North Sea wind farms sited in increasingly deep and truly offshore waters
• Minimising the impact of associated infrastructure such as cabling and substations
• Properly identifying, anticipating and managing safety and risk factors in these more challenging environments
Royal Haskoning’s Head of Renewables Alistair Davison, who has 20 years experience of environmental and development projects, says: “Offshore wind development has thrown up a number of challenging and industry specific issues that require an innovative approach to finding solutions. The industry is still very much in a learning phase. For example, the level of scientific detail included in the rigorous EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) is fascinating, and highlights the number of complex issues which continue to arise.”
“We take the view that the potential for a disconnection between environmental and engineering disciplines should be minimised from the very beginning of a development, to ensure its design takes into account the receiving environment, and attempts to anticipate the issues that lie ahead.”
Royal Haskoning is no stranger to identifying solutions to major development constraints. For example, on the Thanet project, working closely with the developer, specialist contractors and importantly, key stakeholders, it has reached agreement on measures to avoid impacts on important and protected seabed habitats, such as the reef forming Ross Worm Sabellaria spinulosa via micro-siting of cables and foundations. This approach has been welcomed by the Regulatory Authorities and is being applied now on other projects.
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Wind Energy NETWORK
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