UK: SPR Delays Planning Application for Argyll Array Offshore Wind Farm

SPR has announced a further delay in submitting its planning application for the proposed Tiree(Argyll) Array .

The proposed Array is now delayed till 2nd ha 2014. If consented , the Array will not come on line till 2020. Note , if consented, under the Crown Estates lease , SPR has a further 12 months option to commit to developing the Array.

SPR’s announcement was tucked away in the sub-text of a paragraph headed ‘Environmental Impact Assessment’ in the latest SPR update in AnT ( Update 26 /Mar 30 2012). This paragraph made specific reference to Basking Sharks and Great Northern Divers as impacted species by the projected Array. By referencing the regime in which these issues are addressed and stating “SPR is therefore now planning to submit the consent application in 2nd ha 2014 rather than in 2013 as initially forecast “ is SPR implying linkage between the delay and environmental issues?. This cannot be the case.

The Great Northern Diver (GND) issue, was flagged up by SPR as a constraint, in their SPR’s 28 June 2011 Public Information Day (PID) .

SPR stated at this June 2011 PID “ An EIA on the project is underway. We are currently aiming to submit a planning application for Argyll Array to the Scottish Govt in 2012”

Confusion arises at this juncture because, three weeks prior to the 28 June 2011 PID SPR had advised a delay as follows;- “the projected date for the submission of a full planning application to Marine Scotland is now March 2013” .

Leaving this confusion aside, SPR’s current update in AnT would appear to infer the GND issue was discovered after SPR appointed their lead consultant for the EIA “ late last year “ (ie late 2011, presumably after the PID in June 2011) ) . SPR go on to say that the “Array must be planned in strict accordance with all consenting regulations. SPR is therefore now planning to submit the consent application in 2nd half 2014 rather than in 2013 as initially forecast.”

No one would suggest that SPR would not be planning the Tiree Array in strict accordance with the consenting regime. So , what may SPR be inferring? Could there be some new regulatory requirement introduced to dictate this further delay? NTA is unaware of any specific modification MS’ requirements viz-a-viz Tiree Array. No comparable delay has been intimated from other developers working towards submitting their Array planning applications.

It would be a conceit on NTA’s part, to suggest that NTA’s correspondence ,in the last 3 weeks, on environmental issues with SPR, has provoked this delay.

Maybe one, or a combination of the following may be the cause of the delay:-

•  CITI’s assessment is much closer to a political reality than Scottish Government would prefer to acknowledge.
•  Iberdrola has more pressing, competing issues.
•  Technical and/or environmental complexities have emerged.

Tiree(Argyll)Array’s cumulative slippage is now 2 ½ yrs, since the full extent of the proposed Array was revealed , 2 yrs ago , in June 2010.

[mappress]

Offshore WIND staff, April 03, 2012