The Forth and Tay Regional Advisory Group (“FTRAG”) has been set up to ensure that appropriate and effective monitoring of the impacts of the developments are undertaken to satisfy the requirements of the section 36 (“s.36”) consent and marine licence conditions of Neart na Gaoithe Offshore Wind Limited (“NnGOWL”), Inch Cape Offshore Limited (“ICOL”) and Seagreen Wind Energy Limited (“Seagreen”).
Consents were granted by the Scottish Ministers under s.36 of the Electricity Act 1989 to construct and operate the NnGOWL Electricity Generating Station with a maximum generating output of around 450MW, the ICOL Electricity Generating Station with a maximum generating capacity of around 750MW and the Seagreen Electricity Generating Station with a maximum generating capacity around 1500MW.
More information on the projects can be found on the developments’ webpages following the links below:
- For NnGOWL on https://nngoffshorewind.com/
- For ICOL on Inch Cape Offshore Wind Farm (inchcapewind.com)
- For Seagreen on https://www.seagreenwindenergy.com/.
Under the conditions of the s.36 consents and marine licences, developments within the Forth and Tay must submit to the Scottish Ministers for approval an Environmental Management Plan (“EMP”) and a Project Environment Monitoring Programme (“PEMP”), which have been developed, reviewed and agreed through the FTRAG.
In addition to advising on and agreeing the EMP and PEMP, the FTRAG encourages collaboration with developers monitoring programmes to provide more strategic outputs, they will review raw data and reports from the monitoring to provide advice to the Scottish Ministers. The FTRAG will advise whether the monitoring activities are aligned with Scottish Government and academic research in marine renewables and other relevant areas through liaison with Scottish Marine Energy Research (“ScotMER”).
Monitoring requirements are incorporated into conditions of s.36 consents and/or marine licences in order to:
- validate, or reduce uncertainty in predictions on environmental impacts recorded in supporting Environment Impact Assessments (“EIA”) and Habitats Regulation Assessments (“HRA”);
- provide evidence on the effectiveness of mitigation measures; and
- allow identification of any unforeseen consequences.
For more information about the FTRAG please see the Forth and Tay Regional Advisory Group Terms of Reference which can be found in the ToRs tab below.
Developer monitoring reports available on this website present preliminary results from completed surveys. Other monitoring and research will also inform our understanding of the impacts from offshore windfarms on various receptors and therefore these monitoring reports should be considered along with other relevant reports and research. Any changes to policy or casework processes as a result of research findings will be clearly communicated through appropriate channels by Marine Scotland.