HiDef Aerial Surveying Limited (HiDef) has extended an agreement with Centrica Energy for the delivery of high-resolution digital video aerial survey services for Lincs Wind Farm.
HiDef has already delivered ornithological and marine mammal survey services to Centrica across its portfolio of offshore wind projects. The survey’s design was driven by the results of a statistical power analysis undertaken by HiDef’s project partner, DMP Stats, based at the University of St. Andrews. The first year of post-construction monitoring of the Lincs site has already yielded some important results and has demonstrated both the effectiveness of the HiDef technique and the benefits of adopting a strategic-level approach to environmental monitoring.
Kit Hawkins, HiDef’s Commercial Director, said:
“HiDef and Centrica have set the industry standard for both survey and reporting, with the statutory bodies having provided copies of our latest Lincs report to other renewable energy developers as an example of industry leading best practise.”
Jennifer Snowball, Consents and Environment Manager at Centrica Energy, continued:
“ The results to date indicate that the impact to sea bird communities from offshore wind farm development is comparable with the predictions made in the impact assessment, whilst revealing some important natural fluctuations in distribution and relative abundance which, using a different survey method may not have been possible.”
Lincs is a joint venture between leading UK energy company Centrica Energy, Dong Energy and Siemens Project Ventures.