Scottish Renewables Offshore Wind & Supply Chain conference in Aberdeen on 29th January

International renewable energy consultancy Natural Power's Senior Marine Ecologist, Jane Lancaster and Senior Ornithologist, Ross McGregor have been selected to present at Scottish Renewables Offshore Wind & Supply Chain conference in Aberdeen on 29th January.

Natural Power's extensive offshore experience will be presented at Marine Scotland's side event, scheduled to take place from 12:15pm on 29th January during the Offshore Wind & supply Chain conference at the AECC, Aberdeen. The session, titled ‘Robin Rigg is Scotland's first operational offshore wind farm: what have we learnt?' will allow knowledge and experience sharing throughout all aspects of the project – from consent to operation.

E.ON's Robin Rigg Wind Farm is the first commercial offshore wind farm in Scottish waters, having been active since 2010. Prior to construction of the wind farm, a Marine Environment Monitoring Programme (MEMP) was agreed and developed in conjunction with the Robin Rigg Management Group (RRMG). The remit of the MEMP was to monitor key uncertainties and record any changes to the physical and ecological environment that may be caused by the construction and operation of the wind farm. Significant data has now been recorded over a 10 year period, spanning across all phases of the wind farm development and operation.

The session will allow the presentation of the datasets and knowledge across the pre-construction, construction and operational phases of Robin Rigg. The panel will consist of three Marine Scotland representatives, along with E.ON's Robin Rigg Operations Manager Tim Morgan who will provide an overview of the project from an owner's perspective. Natural Power's Jane Lancaster and Ross McGregor will present on the impact of the site benthic and fish populations, and birds and mammals respectively.

Senior Marine Ecologist, Jane Lancaster commented: "Natural Power has been involved in Robin Rigg since inception and has carried out ecological work on this site for over 13 years and utilised their experience and expertise to provide industry leading analysis. This knowledge was imperative for the work carried out throughout our involvement in Robin Rigg offshore wind farm. In line with the MEMP, comprehensive data has been gathered over 13 years and analysis of this data has shown little evidence that construction and operation of the wind farm has had any significant or permanent impact upon marine or bird life in the immediate or surrounding area."

The Natural Power Ecology & Hydrology department has considerable experience advising on all aspects of ecological and hydrological projects, including all baseline surveying requirements, data collation, statistical & modelling expertise, environmental impact assessments, HRA, mitigation and monitoring. The company's long history in offshore wind and expertise is in the provision of advice and surveys to all phases of wind farm developments (feasibility, EIA, post-consent, pre-construction, construction and operation/OFTO). In the past two years the Ecology & Hydrology department alone have worked on 20 offshore wind farms and 60 onshore wind projects across the UK.