The Crown Estate and Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC) have announced the launch of a research project to improve the understanding of environmental compensation options relating to offshore wind farms.
Led by OWIC, the £3.5m study will help meet the recommendations laid out by the UK’s Offshore Wind Champion Tim Pick in his recent independent report commissioned by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), which called for an aligned approach on the delivery of strategic compensation.
Subject to contracts, £3m will be provided by The Crown Estate via the Offshore Wind Evidence and Change Programme, which it leads in partnership with the Department of Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), and DESNZ. Participating OWIC developers will also contribute around £500,000 as well as providing significant in-kind contributions, including access to schemes and specialist technical resource.
Developing offshore wind farms requires a thorough assessment of potential impacts on the environment and other sea users, both positive and negative. As part of these studies, developers must detail steps taken to avoid, mitigate or compensate any negative impacts. In certain cases, companies are required to provide environmental compensation measures to offset potential residual negative impacts. These are generally positive actions taken to support protected habitats or species in locations that may be separate to where a specific development has been proposed.
“As the pipeline of offshore wind grows, there is an increasing need for developers, government and stakeholders to be able to take a more coordinated and strategic approach to identifying and delivering any required environmental compensation measures,” said The Crown Estate.
“Currently, there are uncertainties around how to assess the effectiveness of these actions, which has led to delays in consenting,” stated the property manager. “In an increasingly busy marine environment, some measures may need to be delivered at scale, and across multiple developments. A more comprehensive bank of data and evidence on the efficacy of these measures can deliver a more strategic approach to compensation and deliver solutions that ensure the ecological coherence of the designated sites. This will reduce consenting risks, providing opportunity for improved outcomes for the marine environment and help achievement of the 2030 offshore wind targets.”
OWIC will lead on bringing together key stakeholders including offshore wind developers, representatives from statutory nature conservation bodies, The Crown Estate, UK government, devolved governments and environmental organisations, via the Collaboration on Offshore Wind Strategic Compensation (COWSC) governance framework, and will deliver a shared body of evidence on best-practice, research and practical pilot projects for offshore wind compensation spanning investment in four target areas: Provision of artificial nesting for seabirds; Habitat restoration and creation; Predation reduction; Removal of defunct infrastructure.
The Crown Estate programme manager of the Offshore Wind Evidence and Change Programme Mandy King said: “Effective strategic compensation will be a vital component in the continued rollout of offshore wind in a manner that preserves the ecological coherence of the marine environment. This can only be achieved through strategic thinking, underpinned by true collaboration.
“The Crown Estate is delighted to provide this support as part of its wider drive to de-risk offshore development, catalyse the UK’s clean energy transition and support a thriving marine natural environment. We will continue to use the Offshore Wind Evidence and Change Programme to invest in projects to generate better insights and understanding for the long-term future of nature-positive marine energy.”
OWIC board member Benj Sykes commented: “Rather than working separately on a site-by-site basis, this new strategic compensation initiative gives the offshore wind sector and stakeholders the opportunity to deliver compensation at scale for the UK, bringing better ecological outcomes and supporting the acceleration of offshore wind deployment.”
OWIC director of offshore wind Jane Cooper added: We hope the body of evidence delivered will allow us to better understand how to build offshore wind at the pace required to tackle our climate change and energy security commitments, while protecting the precious environment that our wind power sites reside in. We are extremely grateful to The Crown Estate for their funding, and for every organisation contributing time, resources and expertise.”