Buro Happold undertakes South Humber Channel Marine Studies for renewable energy proposals

06/08/2010 Written by: Gill Sincock

Yorkshire Forward commissions consultancy as part of environmental studies team

Situated on the east coast of north England, the Humber Estuary is the UK’s largest port complex, handling on average 40,000 ship movements a year. Despite this the Humber also supports a rich variety of species and their habitats and is recognised as one of the most important estuaries in Europe for birds supporting nine species of international importance.

Maintaining the balance

Located at the deep water channel of the Humber and on a large area of undeveloped land, the area of Killingholme on the south bank of the Humber, has been identified as having the potential to accommodate internationally significant commercial facilities within the renewable sector, including a tidal turbine development for the Humber Estuary (eg, a tidal power generation farm), or a multi-user marine terminal associated with the manufacture / assembly of offshore wind turbines.

Yorkshire Forward has commissioned a multi-disciplinary team of consultants led by Roger Tym & Partners to prepare a series of environmental studies to assess the potential future impact that a renewable energy marine terminal could have on the Humber Estuary environment. The contribution that could be made towards national climate change targets and the level of socio-economic benefits that could be generated will also be explored by Yorkshire Forward.

Reducing fossil fuel dependency

International multidisciplinary engineering consultancy Buro Happold will be part of the team delivering these findings to inform commercial decisions on the feasibility of the proposed development. Buro Happold’s environmental credentials include instigating the award winning Mersey Tidal Power study which looked at the potential and implications of generating renewable energy from the River Mersey.

Wayne Adams, Buro Happold associate and project manager said “There is significant potential for the Humber area to capture the market share of marine renewables opportunities for the north east of England and into Europe. Buro Happold has a wealth of experience in this field understanding the need to maintain a careful balance between the harnessing of natural energy and its effect on the surrounding environment”.

Buro Happold’s input on the project will be to support the baseline studies that include ground investigation, bathymetry and hydrographics, hydrodynamics and sediments transport, navigation and scoping and baseline studies informing Environmental Impact Assessment, including ecology, geology, archaeology, fisheries and flood risk.

The survey work will take place throughout the summer with findings reported at the end of 2010.

Project team

Client:

Yorkshire Forward

Buro Happold services:

Environmental Issues study, ground investigation supervision, navigation study support, flood risk assessment.

Team:

Roger Tym & Partners, Buro Happold, Hull University Institute of Estuarine and Coastal Studies, JBA Consulting, BMT Group, Humber Field Archaeology