Abstract
DONG Energy is proposing to develop an extension to the existing and operational Burbo Bank offshore wind farm in Liverpool Bay, located 7 to 8.5 km off the North Wirral and Sefton coasts.
DONG Energy specialises in developing projects for the generation of electricity from renewable sources like offshore wind farms, and intends to submit an application for a Development Consent Order (DCO) to the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) to develop an extension to the operational Burbo Bank offshore wind farm, which is to be known as Burbo Bank Extension offshore wind farm. The DCO will also contain proposals for associated development, such as onshore underground cables and an onshore substation, away from the offshore wind farm site which is deemed necessary for the construction and operation of the project.
The DCO application will comprise full details of the development proposals and will be accompanied by an Environmental Statement (ES) (conforming to the Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2009) and other documents, including a statement on pre-application consultation.
This Scoping Report sets out the proposed content, methodologies and key issues to be included in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and the resulting ES to be submitted with the DCO application. The purpose of this document is to support a request for a scoping opinion for an EIA from the IPC. It is also intended that this report builds upon consultation carried out to date and supports ongoing consultation with statutory and non-statutory consultees and stakeholders on the scope of the EIA required for the Burbo Bank Extension offshore wind farm.
The Scoping Report is structured in sections relating to principal topic areas, providing an overview of the project, the developer, and the assessment and consents process by way of an introduction section (Chapter 1), a description of the project (Chapter 2), the scoping of environmental offshore and onshore impacts with summary tables of potential impacts (Chapter 3), and finally an overview of the consultation process and the probable dates of the various steps leading to the grant of the DCO and subsequent construction and operation (Chapter 4).
Within Chapter 3 (Scoping of Environmental Impacts), specific topics are arranged within categories of physical, biological, human offshore environments and onshore environments. Each of these subsections presents a description of baseline conditions from field and survey work followed by an assessment of potential impacts and the studies and surveys proposed to address these within the EIA.