THISTLE Wind Partners (TWP) has submitted the Offshore Scoping Report for its Bowdun Offshore Wind Farm to the Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate – Licensing & Operations Team, to request a Scoping Opinion under the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) regulations. The Report provides information on the proposed offshore infrastructure and further outlines the approach to the EIA, including baseline data sources.
Bowdun Offshore Wind Farm, an approximately 1GW fixed-foundation project located 44km to the east of Stonehaven, will connect to the grid in Aberdeenshire.
2024 has already been a busy year for the project with the 24-month campaign of offshore aerial bird and marine mammal surveys completing in February and the completion of the benthic survey in May. These are key environmental baseline surveys of the array area and export cable corridor, used to support the impact assessment.
Onshore wintering bird and intertidal surveys were completed earlier in the year and ecology surveys, which will form a key part of the onshore environmental baseline assessment within the Onshore EIA, are currently ongoing.
This follows the recent submission of the Onshore Scoping Report to Aberdeenshire Council for the onshore infrastructure associated with the Bowdun Offshore Wind Farm to request a Scoping Opinion under The Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017. The Report provides information on the proposed onshore infrastructure and further outlines the approach to the Environmental Impact Assessment, including baseline data sources.
To keep stakeholders informed, TWP are holding community consultation events in Aberdeenshire between 28th and 30th October 2024. Additional pre-application consultation events, in advance of the submission for Section 36 and marine licences, are planned for 2025. TWP will seek feedback from the community with regards to the Bowdun project.
Commenting on the announcement, Project Director, Ian Taylor said: “TWP are delighted to meet this milestone for Bowdun Offshore Wind Farm, which is a key step in the consenting journey for the development of our project. We will continue to work alongside our many stakeholders in the region and will be sharing project information with the communities in Bowdun during visits to the area next month.”
