Triton Knoll Offshore Wind Farm is continuing to build a detailed picture of local environmental conditions along the project’s 60 kilometres (kms) onshore cable route, with further ecological survey works getting underway this week (w/c Monday 20 March).
Ecology specialists from Royal Haskoning DHV (RHDHV) will spend the next two weeks on foot surveying vegetation and wildlife habitats at parts of the cable corridor.
Once underway, the installation of the underground export cable will be a huge engineering project supporting local jobs and business opportunities, and the survey results will make an important contribution to the design of the works.
Triton Knoll Onshore Consents Manager Vicky Portwain said: “These surveys will help us better understand the ecology and habitats of the land and environments along the length of the consented onshore cable corridor. The results will complement the information that we already have, and allow us to refine our designs for the installation and management of the onshore electrical system.”
The work will see two RHDHV ecologists visiting each plot on foot to record semi-natural vegetation and wildlife habitats. They will classify and record parcels of land based on vegetation presence, in order to fine tune the project’s detailed and robust ecological assessment of the route. This, in turn, will help support the final detailed design of mitigation and restoration works to be implemented as part of the underground cable installation works.
Triton Knoll Offshore Wind Farm has consent to install almost 60kms of onshore underground cable, an intermediate electrical compound at Orby, and a new substation at Bicker Fen, ensuring the delivery of energy generated at the wind farm to an anticipated 800,000 UK homes(1).
Triton Knoll Offshore Wind Farm will be located approximately 32km off the Lincolnshire coast and 50km off the coast of North Norfolk. With a capacity of up to 900MW, the wind farm has the potential to power up to 800,000(1) UK homes once fully operational. Triton Knoll is being developed as a joint venture between Innogy Renewables UK Ltd (innogy) (50%) and Statkraft (50%), with innogy managing the project on behalf of the partnership(2).
The project is continuing to progress well through the latter stages of development, having secured consent for the offshore array in July 2013 and the electrical system in September 2016(3). It has already undertaken onshore and offshore site investigation works. This will enable the project to complete detailed design work in preparation for progress into construction. There are still a number of key stages for the project to complete, including a successful Final Investment Decision, after which onshore construction could then begin.
For more information about the project, please visit: www.tritonknoll.co.uk