Vattenfall and ScottishPower Renewables, the developers of the East Anglia offshore windfarm zone, have appointed ERM as lead environmental consultant to assist in the development of the first project in the zone.

The 7.2GW development will be built in several phases with, the proposed first site, consisting of approximately 240 turbines.

The London based ERM will provide Vattenfall and ScottishPower Renewables with three major pieces of work; a Zonal Environmental Assessment (ZEA) for the 6,000 km² area allocated for the first site; an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the zone, and specialist survey work in relation to ornithology, marine mammals, fish and benthic (sea bed) ecology.

The ZEA will consist of geotechnical/geophysical surveys as well as wind resource and metocean data reviews to identify engineering constraints and design for projects within the zone and an understanding of the environmental characteristics of the area.

The EIA will form part of the first planning application and cover all environment effects of the project which are collected, assessed and are taken into account in reaching a planning decision.

It is proposed that the first project will be located 42 kilometres offshore and will have the capacity to generate up to 1.2GW of clean, green energy.

David Walker, Development Director said: “Vattenfall and ScottishPower Renewables are delighted to appoint ERM to work with us on East Anglia.

“The ZEA and EIA have crucial parts to play in the development and we look forward to seeing the results of the studies.”

Simon Hewitt, ERM’s Project Director for this work, said “Round 3 presents huge challenges and we are extremely pleased to be able to capitalise on our Round 1 and Round 2 experience to help ScottishPower Renewables and Vattenfall to develop the Zone”.

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