On this page you can find out more about the Codling Wind Park project including the latest information on project progress, technical specifications and location maps.
Environmental Surveys
As part of our Foreshore Lease consent, Codling Wind Park (CWP) are committed to undertaking a number of environmental surveys. These will be carried out before construction commences, during the construction period and following construction completion.
A monitoring plan has been agreed with the Regulatory Authorities and a number of surveys have commenced or are expected to be kicked off in summer 2013. These surveys include the following:
SURVEY |
DETAILS |
| Boat-based bird and marine mammal surveys | Transects of the site plus a buffer area.Monthly survey. (Commenced March 2013) |
| Migration surveys (birds only) | Boat-based and coastal.During peak migration periods in autumn and spring.Target species will include geese, swans, terns and waders. |
| Passive acoustic monitoring | 15 C-PODs deployed in locations within the proposed site and surrounding area, targeting harbour porpoise and other cetaceans. |
| Seal haul out counts | Count number of seals hauled out at sites local to the Codling Wind Park site. |
| Benthic Habitat Drop-Down Video | 40 stations within the wind farm boundary, 40 stations within one tidal excursion and 10 – 20 reference stations beyond one tidal excursion. |
| Benthic Habitat Seabed sampling using a 0.1 m2 Hamon grab | The grab gear will be deployed following recovery of the drop-down video equipment where seabed conditions are suitable for grab sampling. All 90-100 drop down video stations will be sampled if possible. |
| Epibenthic Beam Trawl | 20 beam trawl stations will be surveyed within the wind farm site, 4 stations within one tidal excursion and 2 reference sites beyond one tidal excursion. |
| Commercial Otter Trawl Survey | Sampling of commercially important species will be conducted using commercial otter trawl gear. 8 trawls will be conducted within the wind farm site and 4 within one tidal excursion. Trawl durations will be approximately 30 minutes. The surveys will be repeated quarterly; once during each season. |
Other Surveys Works
SURVEY |
DETAILS |
| Geophysical surveys | Bathymetric survey (water depths ranges and sea-bed profile); Sedimentology (sea-bed morphology, large scale features, associated constraints); Wrecks and Seabed Obstructions; Sub-bottom profiling (geological stratigraphic structure); Archaeological Studies (constraints identification);Biotope Mapping (Ecological Surveys);(Completed January 2014) |
Notice to Mariners
CWP will work closely with local and national organisations to minimise the impacts of CWP’s construction activities. Regular updated Notice to Mariners will be issued to:
- Local Fisheries
- Wicklow Port
- Dublin Port Company
- Marine Survey office
- Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government
- Arklow Harbour Authority
Marine Notice No. 43 of 2013 – Amended 02/12/2013
Project Location
The wind farm will be located to the east of the shallow sand bank known as Codling Bank, approximately 13 kilometres off the east coast of Ireland, between Greystones and Wicklow. The closest towns of Kilcoole and Greystones are both situated some 14.8 km from the wind farm area and Wicklow is situated 17 km to the southwest.
The 220 turbines will be arrayed in a grid pattern with the overall layout in the form of a block extending perpendicularly to the coastline. The consented layout comprises 14 rows.
The less technical overview is downloadable here: Codling non-technical Summary
