Centrica Renewable Energy Ltd (CREL) commenced construction of the Lynn and Inner Dowsing (LID) offshore wind farms in 2007. The project consists of 27 turbines at Lynn and 27 turbines at Inner Dowsing and is located 5 km to 8.5 km off the Lincolnshire coast.
Installation of the foundations and transition pieces at the two sites was completed in 2007. In 2008, the turbines were installed and construction works concluded with the installation of the export and inter-array cables. During the period from May 2008 to December 2008, the wind farms were partially operational during turbine testing and the wind farms were commissioned on 23rd December 20081. The LID projects are owned by GLID Wind Farms Topco Ltd (GLID), and managed by CREL on behalf of GLID.
This annual report, consisting of an overview and Technical Appendices, presents the results of a second year of post-construction environmental monitoring at the LID sites. The second year of post-construction monitoring is represented by the period January 2010 to December 2010 (inclusive), although the exact period varies by survey parameter (e.g. the fish surveys continued to June 2011). The results from construction phase monitoring (2007 – 2008) are presented in CREL (2009) and results from the first year of post-construction monitoring (2009) are presented in CREL (2010).
This overview report has been prepared with the following objectives:
To present a summary of the methods and findings of the second year of post-construction monitoring to the Licensing Authority in line with FEPA requirements;
To present a summary of the comparisons carried out between the findings of the second year of post-construction monitoring and the findings of previous monitoring years, in order to highlight any significant changes or trends; and
To integrate the findings of the different monitoring activities, where relevant.
The remaining sections of this report are structured as follows:
Section 2 provides details of the FEPA Licence requirements with regards to post-construction monitoring;
Section 3 provides a summary of the Year 2 post-construction surveys carried out;
Section 4 then provides an overview of the methods employed for each second year post-construction monitoring activity, in addition to a summary of the results;
Section 5 draws together the results and findings of the different monitoring activities to provide a discussion regarding the conclusions of the monitoring;and
Finally, a series of Technical Appendices provide the reports from individual survey activities.