Forth and Tay members

Dogger Bank offshore wind farm Preparing for construction of wind farms located approximately 130km offshore. Working with the development consortium Forewind, Royal HaskoningDHV successfully achieved consenting success for four offshore wind farms in the Dogger Bank Zone in 2015. At the time, this was the largest number of projects to be awarded consent within a similar timeframe and was also potentially the largest offshore wind project in the world. Subsequently, a joint venture between SSE and Equinor has formed to take forward three of the offshore wind farms, collectively referred to as the Dogger Bank Wind Farms, with a capacity of up to 1.2GW each (3.6GW combined), accounting for approximately 4% of the UK’s electricity needs. The projects are far from shore, which represents a logistical challenge on many levels including the planning of environmental surveys, as well as the construction works themselves.

Contract type: Consultancy

Having achieved consent, the projects have a number of conditions to comply with prior to the start of construction. These include the requirement for various plans, including, for example, an Ecological Management Plan, which sets out the principles for how the ecology of the onshore works areas will be safeguarded during the installation of the cables and construction of the onshore converter station. In addition, numerous surveys need to be planned and undertaken, with all of these activities supported by an extensive process of consultation with stakeholders. Royal HaskoningDHV is currently working with the Dogger Bank Wind Farms to carry out discharge of conditions work on the first two of the projects to be taken forward, collectively known as Dogger Bank Creyke Beck, named after the point on the mainland at which the projects connect to the National Grid. This includes co-ordinating a programme of comprehensive surveys onshore and offshore, from the archaeology of onshore Iron Age sites and on the Dogger Bank itself, to traffic and transport considerations and ecology. The Royal HaskoningDHV team has an unparalleled level of technical expertise in this area, with a number of in-house specialists. These include ecologists, archaeologists, as well as transport and noise assessment experts to advise on the impact and management of the construction works.

Race Bank offshore wind farm Facilitating development, design refinement and installation of long distance offshore buried export cables in an environmentally sensitive region. Race Bank Offshore Wind Farm is located approximately 28km from Blakeney Point on the North Norfolk Coast, and extends over approximately 75km². At the time of its construction, Race Bank was one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world. Royal HaskoningDHV was commissioned in the post-consent period in order to carry out a range of environmental assessments prior to installation works being carried out and also to help oversee the installation works. The electricity generated by the wind farm is delivered to the onshore substation using export cables which are buried onshore for 11km from the landfall point to a new substation extension at Walpole in Norfolk, having made landfall through The Wash. This region of the North Norfolk coast is particularly environmentally sensitive so the key challenge facing Royal HaskoningDHV was how to facilitate the installation of export cables, with a focus on the marine and intertidal environment.

Contract type: Consultancy

A key focus for RHDHV initially was on finding ways to minimise disturbance of the highly environmentally sensitive intertidal saltmarsh habitats of The Wash during the installation of the export cables as they approached the landfall. Subsequently, the focus moved to offshore, and specifically the challenge of installing the export cables at the required depth through a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and a Special Protection Area (SPA). Royal HaskoningDHV’s experts designed and managed a number of technical and environmental assessments on behalf of the client in order to help find the optimum methods and routes and to deliver consent for the works to be undertaken. These included work in relation to Unexploded Ordnance Clearance, export cable installation trials, sandwave clearance and remedial cable protection works. We also assisted with the marine licences for met mast decommissioning and Operation & Maintenance activities.