Abstract
Research published by the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC) explores how developers of offshore wind could go above and beyond existing mitigations to maximise opportunities for nature while developing green infrastructure projects.
Supported by SOWEC, the Collaboration for Environmental Mitigation & Nature Inclusive Design (CEMNID) project, a collaboration between offshore wind developers and Scottish regulators, has produced a new set of tools for the sector including a ‘Good Practice Mitigation Library’ and a suitability review of Nature Inclusive Design measures. These offer a practical framework for the offshore wind sector to deliver projects with minimal impact and to benefit the marine environment.
This Final Report aims to provide offshore wind developments in Scotland (with a focus on ScotWind option areas) with a framework to make informed decisions regarding:
- Applicability of the mitigation hierarchy and good practice mitigation measures to be adopted for projects, as demonstrated by the Good Practice Library (see Section 2); and
- Initial advice, and a framework for consideration of NID approaches, that can be implemented by individual offshore wind projects (see Section 3).
This Report also outlines the key challenges, limitations and data gaps noted by the CEMNID Project and importantly provides key recommendations for future work needed to build on the findings from this Project.
Supplementary Materials:
Mitigation Measures Efficacy Review
Mitigation Measures Literature Review