Neart na Gaoithe Offshore Windfarm (Revised Design) - Information to inform the Appropriate Assessment

Information being used by Scottish Ministers to inform the Appropriate Assessment ("AA") for Neart na Gaoithe Offshore Windfarm (Revised Design).

Ornithology

When completing the NnG AA it has become apparent that there have been some inconsistencies in the information provided by Neart na Gaoithe Offshore Wind Limited ("NnGOWL"), making their assessment overly precautionary for some seabird species. The key areas have been the NNGOWL assessment of collision risk from the Seagreen Alpha and Bravo projects on kittiwake and gannet and the apportioning during the non-breeding season. Therefore, when completing the AA, Marine Scotland have used information from other sources in order to ensure that the best available evidence is used in the assessment. This has included some information from the Inch Cape application documents (for the estimation of collision effects on gannet and kittiwake from the Seagreen Alpha and Bravo 2014 consents) and information provided by SNH on apportioning.

The Inch Cape information is all in the public domain here. Available for download below are the apportioning spreadsheets and updated advice provided by SNH (received 5 and 8 October 2018).