Beyond stereotypes – ecological and landscape solutions for

offshore wind farms

Dr Maggie Hill

Countryside Council for Wales

Can we agree?There is much still to be discovered about the environmental effects of offshore wind farms

Photo courtesy of VESTAS Danish Wind Technology

EWEA Vice-President

Jos Beurskens, 2001

“We need to avoid the situation in the Netherlands where one faction wants to save nature and the other to introduce renewables. If you don’t bring them together it will be disastrous.”

Potential environmental effects of offshore windfarms

Seabed Birds Seascape and coastal character

Coastal processes

Fish and fisheries

Visual

Beach zone coastal habitats

Marine mammals

Historic landscape

Water quality Collisions

Exclusions

Amenity and water use

Uncertainties – the main ones!

• Birds – displacement, barrier effect collisions

• Fish – electromagnetic effects; change in fishing effort

• Marine mammals – underwater noise

• Seascape – how evaluate, layout?

• Cumulative assessments – how?

Common Scoter Melanitta nigra

BEAUMARIS

PRESTATYN

FLEETWOOD

BLACKPOOL

SOUTHPORT

LIVERPOOL

40 to 360 (65)30 to 40 (13)20 to 30 (16)10 to 20 (47)

0 to 10 (1141)

Liverpool Bay common scoter aerial survey - Nov 2000

Sharks, skates and rays• Will windfarm cables affect behaviour or

populations?

• Many species depleted in UK waters

• Use inshore sandbanks for feeding, breeding, nursery areas

• Lab tests show avoidance and attraction

• Shielding and burial of cables

Seascapes

Stages of assessment

Delineate seascape unitDelineate seascape unit

Visual analysisVisual analysis

Describe - marine, coastline, Describe - marine, coastline, hinterlandhinterland

Identify seascape characterIdentify seascape character

Evaluate – quality, value, capacityEvaluate – quality, value, capacity

Dynamism and variabilityDynamism and variability

Scale and distanceScale and distance

Different sea to land/land to seaDifferent sea to land/land to sea

Visual movementVisual movement

Historic and cultural aspectsHistoric and cultural aspects

Functions and usesFunctions and uses

Visibility = number of 1 km points visible from every 50 m pixel

ONLY derived from points on land

Sample points

Visibility of Sea from Land

Existing offshore activities located in Liverpool Bay showing site of proposed wind farms

©BWEA