POST CONSENT SUPPORT
FEATURE SPONSOR
POST CONSENT SUPPORT
ADVICE FROM THE LEADERS IN THE INDUSTRY
Achieving consent is a major milestone in the offshore wind farm development process.
Royal HaskoningDHV has a 100% track record of achieving consent on offshore renewable energy projects. However, the real work of meeting the environmental and associated technical, engineering and risk management challenges continue are faced after consent has been granted.
OFFSHORE WIND SECTOR Offshore wind is a young industry and has faced many challenges. As wind farms move further offshore and get bigger these challenges have increased. In addition, the onshore electrical transmission aspects of projects involve long cable routes and construction of large converter stations to connect with the national grid
SERVICES REQUIRED
A large range of environmental, technical and engineering services are required to support offshore wind farm developers through the post consent, design development, risk review and procurement stages.
Due to the long lead times between initial planning leading to construction and then on to operation, the detail of many of the requirements of licences are deferred into the post-consent period. It is in this period when detailed design is undertaken and environmental mitigation measures can be embedded into the construction and operational design and installation methodologies.
In addition, given the pace of change and innovation in available technologies project designs have the potential to develop and be refined from that consented, even allowing for the flexibility allowed for within the ‘Rochdale Envelope’. There is therefore a great deal of work to be done with the relevant authorities and environmental regulators to take licence conditions and turn them into operational plans.
SURVEY AND MONITORING PROGRAMMES
Survey and monitoring programmes need to be designed to be robust, proportionate and meaningful. Preconstruction activities include…:
• Clarifying, defining or amending compliance and discharge registers
• Agreeing licence variations if required • Preparation of Environmental Management Plans
• Designing, managing, undertaking and reporting onshore and offshore surveys
• Reviewing contractor Method Statements
All of these tasks require close liaison and negotiation with regulators and relevant authorities such as the MMO, Marine Scotland, local authorities or the Environment Agency.
LONGER TERM REQUIREMENTS There is also a requirement to agree longer term requirements such as operational monitoring and management plans and sustainable and effective decommissioning plans.
A key requirement with such a wide range of environmental plans and methodologies to be agreed is to ensure join-up between different specialisms and look for opportunities for efficiencies and savings. This is particularly important offshore where boat time is expensive and weather windows may be short.
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www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
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