Module 4: Project Planning and Early Development of an Offshore Wind Farm
Topics covered in this module include:
The Development Process – A Generic Overview: in this section you will get a high-level description of the various stages in the lifecycle of an offshore wind farm project. The rest of this module, however, focuses on the initial project planning and the early development stage. This section should take you around 5 minutes to complete.
Role of Legislation and Policy in Project Planning and Early Development: in this section you will learn about the role of legislation and policy in the regulatory and consenting framework for offshore wind, how it sets out the legal requirement for the targets that government seeks to achieve for the reduction in greenhouse gases, and how it sets out the subsidies for the offshore wind industry. This section should take you around 10 minutes to complete.
Marine Planning: in this section you will learn about the approaches to marine spatial planning how these differ across the UK and the devolved administrations. You will learn how the process provides the spatial strategy to underpin leasing rounds for offshore wind. This section should take you around 25 minutes to complete.
Strategic Planning: in this section you will learn about the role of strategic planning in identifying suitable locations for offshore wind development and how the process differs across the UK and the devolved administrations. This section should take you around 25 minutes to complete.
Project Site Selection: in this section you will learn about the site selection work that must be undertaken by developers of offshore wind farm projects to identify and refine a project to take forward through the consenting process. This section should take you around 15 minutes to complete.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this module the participant should have developed:
- An overview of the role that legislation and policy plays in UK offshore wind.
- A high-level understanding of the role of marine spatial planning and strategic planning in identifying suitable locations for offshore wind development in the UK.
- An understanding of, and the differences in, the strategic planning process between the UK government and the devolved administrations.
- An understanding of the site-selection work undertaken by a developer to identify a project area.