DEVELOPMENT CONTROL AND REGULATION COMMITTEE 30 September 2005 A Report by the Head of Environment _________________________________________________________________________________________ ___ Application No D/2702/2005 Applicant Eclipse Energy Co Ltd _________________________________________________________________________________________ ___ PROPOSAL The construction of the Ormonde Wind Farm west of Walney Island and the Ormonde Gas Field development _________________________________________________________________________________________ ___ 1 RECOMMENDATION 1.1 That no objection be raised to the Ormonde Project. 1.2 That the DTI and DEFRA be advised that the County Council objects to the proposed incremental development and substantial expansion of windfarm development in this area without a holistic assessment of the proposed schemes to determine the acceptable capacity of this area for wind farm development. 2 THE PROPOSAL 2.1 The applicant has applied to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and to the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for a number of consents for the Ormonde project. These include: i) Under section 36, 36a and 37 of the Electricity Act 1989 to construct and operate a 93 MW offshore electricity generating station at the Ormonde South Gas Field location and to subsequently relocate the facility to the Ormonde North Gas Field. ii) Under Part 1 of the Petroleum Act 1978 for a Field Development Programme for the Ormonde South and Ormonde North Gas fields. These to be worked sequentially commencing with the Ormonde South Gas Field. iii) Under Section 14 of the Energy Act 1976 approval to establish a power station to be fuelled by natural gas. iv) Under Section 36, 36a and 37 of the Electricity Act 1989 to construct and operate a 108 MW [installed capacity] offshore windfarm, constrained to a 99.9 MW maximum output at Ormo nde West located between the Ormonde South and Ormonde North Gas Fields. 2.2 The County Council has been consulted on the proposals and asked whether it has any concerns about the potential impacts and what these impacts might be. Where concerns are identified, suggestions for any mitigation measures are welcomed. An Environmental Statement accompanied the consultation. 2.3 The project is to co-develop a 30-turbine offshore windfarm with two small gas fields. The combination of the two energy production systems significantly increases the amount of energy developed through the new infrastructure, increasing the overall efficiency of the development. 2.4 Two drilling centres, Ormonde South and Ormonde North would exploit the gas reservoirs. These locations and that of the Ormonde Offshore Windfarm [OWF] lie in about 20 m of water and roughly 10 km north west of the Barrow offshore windfarm [30 turbines] currently being constructed, to which the County Council raised no objection in principle when consulted in 2002. 2.5 The two gas fields would be developed consecutively, the second being brought on-stream once the first is depleted. Drilling operations at the north location would take place about four years after those at Ormonde South. Two wells would be drilled at each location, and then a relocatable production facility, the gas turbine platform, would be used to draw off the gas and generate electricity onboard the platform via gas turbines. 2.6 The offshore wind farm would be located in an area approximately 4.0 x 2.5 km. It is proposed to install 30 x 3.6 MW wind turbines within the area, although a smaller number of larger turbines, up to 6 MW, could be installed if they became available from the manufacturer. The largest turbines envisaged will have a hub height of about 100 m and a rotor diameter of 140m, giving a total structure height of about 170m.. The turbines will be in three rows of 10 approximately parallel to Walney Island coastline. The distance between the turbines in the rows would be about 560 m and the distance between the rows 760 m. Sub-sea cables will run from each wind turbine to a sub-station platform located within the windfarm area. 2.7 At any one time, the Ormonde project would comprise a maximum of 33 offshore structures, ie the gas turbine platform, 30 wind turbines, the sub-station platform and a meteorological mast [located just outside the wind farm area]. The sub-sea cable exporting the electricity to the grid from the wind and gas turbine generators is proposed to come ashore at Heysham. 2.8 A local operations base will be required for the life of the project, estimated at around 7 to 14 years for the gas turbine platform and 25 years for the windfarm. This would comprise storage, workshop and office areas. The applicant states that the exact location for this has not yet been decided although a facility in Barrow is said to be a possibility. The facilities will be serviced and maintained by a team of 20-25 trained, locally based personnel. 2.9 At the end of their operational life, the facilities will be decommissioned. This likely to require the removal of all equipment above the sea bed. 2.10 DTI and Crown Estates made available nineteen offshore windfarm leases during 2001. These sites were limited to a maximum of thirty turbines. Of the nineteen projects, twelve have now received consent with a further five applications currently being determined. One has fallen by the wayside and the Ormo nde project is the last project to submit applications for consent. The second round of offshore windfarm development will be required to be sited further offshore beyond a five mile (8km) exclusion zone from the local coastline, but will contain larger schemes. The applicant refers to the strategic need for energy resources and wind energy in particular to address key energy issues facing the UK. The project will produce low carbon energy from wind and natural gas (which may otherwise be uneconomic to exploit) contributing to the UK’s C02 reduction targets. 2.11 This is one of a total of five offshore wind farms proposed in this part of the East Irish Sea. In addition to this scheme and the Barrow scheme under construction, there are two much larger sites proposed further out beyond the Ormonde and Barrow sites. These are the West of Duddon Sands and Walney offshore windfarms. A further scheme, Shell Flat, is proposed west of Blackpool. These latter three schemes have not reached the planning consent stage yet. It is anticipated that the total number of wind turbines if all five schemes were authorised would be 352. The Environmental Statement assesses the cumulative impact if all these schemes were developed. 3 REPRESENTATIONS 3.1 Local members of divisions most affected by the proposal have been consulted on the proposal. A letter has been received from County Councillor Cole which is attached to this report. 4 STRATEGIC ISSUES 4.1 This is a major development proposal and despite being offshore falls within the scope of the Cumb ria and Lake District Joint Structure Plan. Other land based structure plan policies are also relevant. There are a number of strategic issues raised by this proposal. i) Whether the development would be detrimental to the character and quality of the landscape or any features of national or international importance including National Parks [policies E34, E37]. ii) Whether the proposal would be detrimental to the distinctive character of landscapes of County Importance or the undeveloped coast or have a significant adverse impact [policies E36 and C41, R44]. iii) Whether the energy contribution and other benefits of the proposals clearly outweigh any detrimental effects [policies ST4 and R44]. 4.2 The Environmental Statement covers a wide range of potential impacts including those that may impact on the main policy issues outlined above. Landscape, Visual and Cumulative Impact 4.3 A review of the Environmental Statement and a landscape/seascape and visual impact assessment including cumulative impact has been undertaken by Capita at my request, to aid my assessment of the scheme. 4.4 The description of the existing coastal landscape in the Barrow, Walney, Duddon and St Bees to Haverigg areas is in my view satisfactory. There is limited use of the Countryside Agency's character assessment and the County Council's landscape classification to develop these. The techniques used to produce the seascape units [ie offshore landscape units] follow the guidance found in the Guide to Best Practice in Seascape Assessment. 4.5 Part of the affected coastline, between Silecroft and south of Drigg, is in the Lake District National Park. Parts of South Walney and North Walney, Morecambe Bay and the Duddon, together with higher ground behind Dalton-in-Furness and Millom are Landscapes of County Importance. The St Bees Heritage Coast is over 45 km from the development site and is not significantly affected. 4.6 Maps showing the zones of visual influence of the development are presented to show the areas from which it may be possible to see some part of the development. These indicate that it will be particularly visible from Walney Island, Roa Island, the Duddon, including Askam and Haverigg and some higher ground, including Black Combe behind. The proposal would also be visible from the coastline north of Haverigg but with increasing distance and more obliquely. It would be visible from the inter-tidal areas of Morecambe Bay but not from Furness peninsula east of Barrow. 4.7 The ES looks at 7 viewpoints in detail, six of them in Cumbria from the closest viewpoints. The method used for selecting and taking the photos and preparing the photomontages is in accordance with Landscape Institute Guidance. The photomontages will be displayed at the committee meeting. 4.8 The ES includes landscape and seascape assessments, considering the changes that the proposed development would have on the key features of the landscape and seascape within the study area.