Renewable Energy Services
The consents, consultation and procedures required for renewable developments can be extremely complex. BMT Cordah Ltd has a considerable record in managing the consents stage of project development, including stakeholder dialogue, environmental impact assessment, planning, FEPA consents, and consultations with statutory bodies such as the Crown Estates, heritage bodies, the DTI, devolved executives/assemblies, local authorities, the JNCC and maritime bodies.
As well as terrestrial renewables projects, BMT Cordah has experience of the particular complexities associated with coastal and marine projects, including dealing with issues of fixed coastal installations, transport links and pipelines and cables, including overhead, underground, subsea or in the coastal zone.
Our experience in renewable energy includes strategic advice to DTI on offshore wind farm development, onshore windfarm projects, energy from waste, biomass, and hydro projects.
Specific skills include:
• survey and inspection;
• risk assessment;
• site feasibility and selection;
• scoping and consultation;
• environmental impact assessment; and
• marine impact assessment.
Project Specific Problem Solving
A company wished to develop a wind farm on a site which has two nearby radio masts. Users of these masts include 6 telephone operators and the local police force. Each mast broadcasts to at least one of three further masts over a distance of typically 20 km. The broadcast links criss-cross the development site. Each broadcast link requires a ‘safeguarding' zone to ensure that the signal quality is not degraded by electro-magnetic interference (EMI) from fixed or rotating elements of the turbines. The problem to be overcome was how to develop a site layout which met the requirements of the telecommunications operators without compromising the capacity of the proposed windfarm.
In collaboration with an EMI specialist, BMT Cordah developed a simple tool which allowed the calculation of the horizontal and vertical clearance of each proposed turbine location against the nearest broadcast links. A draft layout was successfully developed which delivered the required number of turbines, and met the safeguarding requirements of each of the operators.