Ornithological Headroom

Status: Complete

Start Date: December 2020

Lead Organisation: Natural England

This project sought ways to legally secure the as-built parameters of offshore wind farms for better impact assessments. Currently, impact assessments use a "worst case" scenario i.e. a range of construction assumptions that set out the maximum extent to which the wind farm will be built. However, wind farms are not always built out to their maximum design assumptions, meaning their actual impacts may be less, or different to their perceived impacts. This may lead to cumulative impact assessments that indicate impacts are greater than they will be in reality. To avoid this, future assessments could focus on the actual built parameters of offshore wind. This project held two workshops with industry members, regulators, and statutory bodies to explore these issues, particularly regarding turbine impacts on birds. Details are in the project report.