First Flight Wind Ltd, a consortium made up of B9 Energy, DONG Energy and RES, has appointed ABPmer to undertake physical process studies to support the Environmental Impact Assessment of the first offshore wind farm planned off the coast of County Down in Northern Ireland.
The proposed 600MW wind farm will be located within the Wind Resource Zone in the Irish Sea and will be at least 8km off the County Down coast.
ABPmer will advise on metocean requirements and provide baseline site characterisation to inform the impact assessment of the offshore wind development and the associated export cable that is necessary for the planning application. The study will be informed by data collected from two wave measuring buoys and associated instrumentation to be deployed within the WRZ later this year.
Bill Cooper, ABPmer Managing Director said: “We are delighted to be given the opportunity to work with First Flight Wind. We have undertaken many similar assessments for the offshore wind industry and recognise that our physical process studies provide an important contribution to many other EIA topics, such as the human and biological environments, by offering the basis of describing relevant physical impacts on their associated receptors.”
Dr Carolyn Heeps, Project Development Manager of First Flight Wind said: “As part of the Environmental Impact Assessment, First Flight Wind will undertake a suite of surveys within the Wind Resource Zone and assess the potential impacts of this offshore wind farm. It is therefore crucial that all the surveys are robust. We are pleased to appoint ABPmer who will carry out the Physical Process Assessment as they are very experienced in this field of study having worked on many other UK offshore wind farm projects.”
ABPmer is a leading UK marine environmental consultancy providing specialist services to the marine renewable, port and maritime industry sectors. The company has undertaken physical process studies, metocean analysis and strategic research for the offshore wind sector since 1999, delivering over 180 technical reports to more than 30 separate offshore wind projects around the United Kingdom.
[mappress]
Press release, July 15, 2013; Image: firstflightwind