Posters

Abstract

One common challenge that ITPEnergised has identified from supporting various offshore wind farm consenting & permitting projects is the tendency to underestimate the correlation between the mitigation requirements and severity of consent conditions and the constructability of these schemes. It is evident that in order to deliver robust consent applications, EIA consultancies must be able to understand construction methodologies and requirements in order to provide a tailored environmental assessment that will form a workable basis for the appointed contractor to build the consented scheme. This in turn will ensure the developer avoids programme delays and the requirement to obtain further planning permission or variations following the initial award of consent. Challenges include offshore mitigation measures, landfall requirements, onshore access, variations in design layouts and contractor temporary storage and construction compound requirements. It is evident in our experience that the EIA team need to be fully embedded within the Design team to ensure that the mitigation measures which are committed to within the EIA and are to be implemented following consent/during construction are actually feasible and cost effective. Land requirements should also be developed in consultation with the EIA team in order to avoid and or reduce risk that could become too onerous at construction stage. Our experience on offshore and onshore consents shows that construction environmental management is a subject too often overlooked at EIA yet forms a fundamental element for any development project and integration can provide great benefit to the developer.