Keadby Wind Farm Extension Environmental Impact Assessment Scoping Report February 2015 THIS PAGE IS INTENTIONALLY BLANK Document control sheet BPP 04 F8 Project: Keadby Wind Farm Extension Client: SSE Renewables Project No: B1486010 Document title: Environmental Impact Assessment Scoping Report Originated by Checked by Reviewed by VERSION NAME NAME NAME V3.0 Eleanor King Kay Griffin Jo Moran NAME As Project Manager I confirm that the above INITIALS Approved by document(s) have been subjected to Jacobs’ Check and Review procedure and that I approve them for issue JM DATE 30.05.14 Document status – Final Report issued to client. REVISION NAME NAME NAME V4.0 David Heelan Jo Moran Jo Moran NAME As Project Manager I confirm that the above INITIALS Approved by document(s) have been subjected to Jacobs’ Check and Review procedure and that I Jo Moran approve them for issue JM DATE 29.01.15 Document status – Draft Report REVISION NAME NAME NAME V7.0 David Heelan Lynne Eastham Jo Moran NAME As Project Manager I confirm that the above INITIALS Approved by document(s) have been subjected to Jacobs’ Check and Review procedure and that I Jo Moran approve them for issue JM DATE 23.02.15 Document status – Final Report Jacobs U.K. Limited This document has been prepared by a division, subsidiary or affiliate of Jacobs U.K. Limited (“Jacobs”) in its professional capacity as consultants in accordance with the terms and conditions of Jacobs’ contract with the commissioning party (the “Client”). Regard should be had to those terms and conditions when considering and/or placing any reliance on this document. 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THIS PAGE IS INTENTIONALLY BLANK Contents Executive Summary 1 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Background Information 1 1.2 Purpose of this Report 1 1.3 SSE Renewables 2 1.4 Jacobs UK Ltd 3 1.5 Need for Onshore Wind 3 2 Consultation 4 2.1 Scoping Stage Consultation 4 2.2 EIA Consultation 4 2.3 Public Exhibitions 4 3 The Proposed Development 5 3.1 Introduction 5 3.2 Site Selection 6 3.3 Site Design and Mitigation 6 3.4 Site Description 7 3.5 Turbine Design 7 3.6 Site Access 7 3.7 Electrical Layout 7 3.8 Project Construction 8 3.9 Project Operation and Maintenance 8 3.10 Project Decommissioning 8 4 Planning Policy Context 9 4.1 Introduction 9 4.2 National Policy Statements 9 4.3 Other Relevant Policy and Guidance 9 4.4 National Planning Policy 9 4.5 Regional Planning Policy 10 4.6 Local Planning Policy 10 5 Proposed Approach to EIA 12 5.1 Structure of the Environmental Statement (ES) 12 5.2 ES Format 12 5.3 Supporting Documents 13 6 Environmental Parameters 14 6.1 Introduction 14 6.2 Hydrology, Hydrogeology, Geology and Soils 14 6.3 Ecology 18 6.4 Ornithology 20 6.5 Landscape and Visual 24 6.6 Cultural Heritage 30 6.7 Socio-economics and Recreation 34 6.8 Noise and Vibration 36 6.9 Traffic, Access and Transport 38 6.10 Other Issues 42 6.11 Summary 45 7 References 47 Glossary 50 Figures 51 Figure 1 - Site Location Plan Figure 2 - Key Environmental Designations Figure 3 - Vantage Point Locations Figure 4 - Zone of Theoretical Visibility and Proposed Viewpoint Locations Figure 5 - Cumulative Assessment Development Location Plan Executive Summary SSE Renewables Developments (UK) Limited (SSER) is proposing to develop an extension to their existing Keadby Wind Farm, 3.5 km west of Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire. The wind farm would generate renewable electricity for export to the grid and would contribute to meeting the UK Government’s renewable energy generation and carbon reduction targets. Progression of the conceptual design is at an early stage and the installed capacity of the proposed development cannot be confirmed until the completion of the environmental studies and consultation with the local communities and stakeholders. Initial design work and early constraint identification has been undertaken to identify potential turbine locations, which generally surround the current Keadby Wind Farm site. This work has indicated the site can accommodate up to a maximum of 25 turbines. Likely turbine candidates are still to be determined, however, the turbines under consideration will have a maximum blade tip height of 140 m. As the proposed development will comprise an extension to a wind farm with an installed capacity in excess 50 MW, it is classified by Section 15 of the Planning Act 2008 as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP). The proposed development therefore requires a Development Consent Order (DCO). This Scoping Report forms part of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process. The aim of the document is to inform stakeholders about the proposed development and provide information on the proposed approach to the EIA. For each environmental parameter, the potential effects of the project that require further investigation are identified and the proposed scope of assessment in terms of studies and surveys to be undertaken is discussed. The detailed assessment methodologies for the various environmental parameters will be informed by responses to this Scoping Report and further consultation with relevant consultees undertaken during the EIA process. On behalf of SSER, this Scoping Report is submitted in accordance with Regulation 8 of the Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2009 as the basis of a request for the Planning Inspectorate (PINS), which is the Government agency responsible for examining planning applications for NSIPs, to provide an EIA Scoping Opinion for the proposed development. THIS PAGE IS INTENTIONALLY BLANK 1 Introduction 1.1 Background Information SSE Renewables Developments (UK) Limited (SSER) acquired the 68 Megawatt (MW) Keadby Wind Farm project (KWF Ltd) in May 2011 and is seeking to extend the wind farm which currently comprises 34 turbines. The proposed extension to the wind farm is hereafter referred to as the ‘proposed development’. The site lies on flat agricultural land next to Keadby Power Station and between Crowle (1 km to the west) and Scunthorpe (3.5 km to the southeast), west of the River Trent. Figure 1 shows the location of the existing wind farm and the indicative site boundary of the proposed development. Progression of the conceptual design is at an early stage and the installed capacity of the proposed development cannot be confirmed until the completion of the environmental studies and consultation with the local communities and stakeholders. Initial design work and early constraint identification has been undertaken to identify potential turbine locations, which generally surround the current Keadby Wind Farm site. This work has indicated the site can accommodate up to a maximum of 25 turbines. Likely turbine candidates are still to be determined, however, the turbines under consideration will have a maximum blade tip height of 140 m. Due to improvements in turbine design since the installation of the original 2 MW turbines, it is anticipated that the electrical output will be between 2 and 3 MW per turbine. As the proposed development will comprise an extension to a wind farm with an installed capacity in excess 50 MW, it is classified by Section 15 of the Planning Act 2008 as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP). The proposed development therefore requires a Development Consent Order (DCO) from the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) which is the Government agency responsible for examining planning applications for NSIPs). Due to the nature and scale of the proposed development, this application will require an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and the findings of the EIA will be presented within an Environmental Statement (ES) which will form part of the application for a DCO.