Governments and industry want to better protect nature from offshore wind development. Conservationists worry they won’t go far or fast enough.
Just before New Year, offshore wind farm developer Ørsted’s 2.4-gigawatt Hornsea 3 project was given the green light by the U.K. government. But the project highlights the potential conflict between climate-change mitigation and nature protection.
A decision on the project had been scheduled for October 2019, but concerns over its impact on bird life, and how to mitigate it, forced a delay.
Located off the North Yorkshire coast, the development is close to several European designated nature sites, including the Flamborough and Filey Coast Special Protection Area, home to kittiwakes, an endangered seabird.
The government acknowledged that the project, and others in the area, could have a “population-level effect” on the kittiwake, but has approved Ørsted’s plan to compensate for predicted bird deaths by installing artificial nesting structures onshore. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, a U.K.-based nature conservation group, says the success or failure of such an effort will be unable to be determined for at least 10 years.
Groups including The Wildlife Trusts, Marine Conservation Society, Greenpeace and the RSPB contend that the current U.K. planning and consenting regime for offshore wind and other marine activities is inadequate. Offshore wind developers obtain consent from the secretary of state for energy, following examination of the proposal by the Planning Inspectorate. A separate government body, the Marine Management Organisation, has a role in advising on applications and enforcing marine licenses.
But this system does not account for the cumulative impact that multiple offshore wind farms could have on wildlife and ecosystems, according to Joan Edwards, director of public affairs and living seas at The Wildlife Trusts. Nor does it properly consider the location for cabling infrastructure, which is the element of offshore wind that has the most potential to damage ecosystems, she said.
Damage from cabling connecting existing wind farms to shore has been identified in The Wash, an estuary on the eastern coast designated as a European Special Area of Conservation due to habitats such as mudflats and salt marsh, in an official assessment by the government’s nature adviser Natural England.
Salt marsh has huge potential for carbon sequestration. “The minute you start digging salt marsh up, you're doing the opposite of what you're trying to achieve by generating renewable energy,” Edwards said in an interview.
She stresses that the conservation sector supports offshore wind but wants to see a holistic plan for use of the seas. “Offshore wind has a huge role to play in climate-change mitigation. But let's stop, slow down, plan it properly and make sure we’ve got both a good offshore wind farm for the energy industry and a really healthy marine environment,” she says.
Here is new arrival items as below:
ALSTOM
AY00000001093/A
AY00000001146/B
AY00000000219/E
AY00000000676/C
AY00000000646/B
AY00000000279/D
010.04.7461/G 2
AY00000000277/D
AY00000001308/A
AY00000000669/A
AY00000001468/A
Tags :
Mon/Sat 9.00am to 7.00pm
