No objections to Pembrokeshire Erebus floating wind farm

THE PEMBROKESHIRE National Park will not object to plans for an offshore wind farm but will highlight concerns about the impact on the marine environment and migratory birds.

Members of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority considered its response to consultations on the Erebus floating wind farm project at its meeting on Wednesday, March 30.

The plans are for a 100MW test and demonstration project in the Celtic Sea and would become one of the largest floating offshore wind project when constructed in 2026 with seven to ten turbines located 45km out at sea from the south west coast of Pembrokeshire.

It includes an offshore cable route back to a landing point near Milford Haven and an onshore cable route from the landing point to a new substation near Pembroke power station.

The applicant Blue Gem Wind Ltd has applied to Welsh Ministers for consent under the Electricity Act to construct and operate the generating station and a separate marine licence has been applied for from Natural Resources Wales, members were told.

A number of members highlighted significant concerns about the impact on migratory birds and in particular Manx Shearwaters and called for assurance that these matters would be considered seriously during the planning process.

The impact of the cable on the seabed was also to be fed into the response to the consultation and a call for the offsetting of adverse effects through landscape enhancements.

The authority members agreed that the response be that the national park does not object, but there are concerns, and that “this view is subject to the securing of the mitigation proposed within the environmental statement.

“There remain adverse effects on the National Park and these are not fully mitigated, these adverse effects should be appropriately offset through landscape enhancements, secured as part of the development’s requirements,” concludes the response, signed by director of planning and park direction Nicola Gandy.