A British perspective on the design of an offshore wind farm: balancing constraint Pre- and post- monitoring at an of offshore wind farm

Transcription

1 A British perspective on the design of an offshore wind farm: balancing constraint Pre- and post- monitoring at an of offshore wind farm Dr Marcus Cross 8 th November 2017

2 Contents Introduction Full Scope Projects Balancing Constraints Monitoring Mitigation Reflections

3 Introduction Worked in the Offshore Wind industry for approx. 8yr Developed >10GW of capacity with >2GW installed or currently in construction Advised on projects in three continents but mainly UK focused

4 Full Scope Projects 4-8yr before construction could begin during which the design of the project is refined

5 Balancing Constraints Physical features + Geology, Meteorological and Oceanographic conditions Civil engineering and design Foundations (turbine and substation) Turbine design Cables Flidar and met ocean buoys Installation / Operation Program Method + including export cable Vessel transit routes/logistic hubs Electrical Design and optimization Grid connection (location & integration) Commercial Supply chain such as components, vessels, labor force, ports etc Gov Incentives Local jobs and skill training Competitors (they could limit Social / Economic Fishing Community + commercial and recreational Tourism Cultural and archaeological, historic sites Neighboring communities e.g visual impacts Military Aviation Coastguard Dredging Dumping grounds Navigation and shipping Academic, R and D Legislative Lease conditions Permitting requirements and conditions Health & Safety Environmental Marine, intertidal and terrestrial flora and fauna Protected sites Protected species and habitat

6 Monitoring Not to be confused with mitigation Purpose to is to observe and check predictions made Generally required where there is uncertainty in the baseline data or impact assessment In the UK this requirement is secured at the time of authorisation through a permitting condition which specifies that agreement on the specifics, with relevant stakeholders, is necessary prior to the start of the activity Historically based on a BACI (Before After Control Impact) type studies Was not a perfect process - but lessons can be learnt QUESTION: Are BACI studies the most appropriate approach to monitoring? Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time-bound

7 Monitoring Guidance Prescriptive Evidence Based Germany State driven: StUK4 ks/standard/7003eng.pdf UK Applicant driven blications/review-of-environmentaldata-mmo-1031 Question: For the US market what is most appropriate mechanism to deliver monitoring requirements?

8 Deliverability Government managed / delivered monitoring Belgium: Coordinated monitoring of the environmental effects of these wind farms on the marine environment Permit driven / Developer responsibility UK Applicant driven contracted and managed by developers Joint Industry / Strategic European: The DEPONS project is an industry initiative grouping five offshore wind developers led by Vattenfall who joined forces to initiate and fund the international research program DEPONS. The program will bring fundamental new insights into the North Sea harbor porpoise in responses to underwater piling noise, as well as their small and large-scale general movement patterns. This information will be fed into a model, which will provide an evidence based framework for the assessment of wind farm underwater noise impacts. For more information on the project please go to: UK: The Offshore Renewables Joint Industry Programme (ORJIP) Bird Collision Avoidance Study, which started in March 2014, was the first of its kind and employed a multi-sensor monitoring system to track birds within and around the wind farm, providing results that will significantly progress our understanding of how birds interact with offshore wind farmshttps:// Academia / Research Science Direct 6,688 journal articles based on offshore wind ecology How can ensure effectively engagement industry and key stakeholders to build trust

9 Mitigation Used to reduce the magnitude of an impact if necessary Evidence based not prescriptive Details often, but not always, agreed at the time of approval Options varied and bespoke

10 Reflection Monitoring and Mitigation are not the same No one size fits all approach to Monitoring (or Mitigation) Hypothesis / question driven approach to monitoring Evidence based decision making (data availability is key = sharing info. is based on trust) Need to capture the right data not just any data it s the consequence of change that is important not just measuring change What is the baseline against which we will assess any change? How do we ensure that we have the statistical power to detect meaningful change? Individual receptor driven monitoring is not necessarily always the most appropriate Not all sites are appropriate to monitor all receptors Adaptive, evidence based monitoring can support the development of renewable, clean and affordable energy

11 La fin And thank you