Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs for short) have their own planning process – approved by the relevant Secretary of State through a Development Consent Order. NSIPs can present big challenges for protecting wildlife because their benefits are often seen as outweighing any negative impacts they might have on the environment.
This means that even legally protected wildlife sites and habitats like ancient woodland and chalk aquifer-fed fens – which are effectively impossible to recreate – do not always emerge unscathed from encounters with these projects whose delivery is deemed to be in the national public interest.
Consequently, Sizewell C will see the destruction of a significant area of the Sizewell Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and displacement of rare and threatened species including marsh harriers and natterjack toads.
The construction of offshore wind farms can impact on marine wildlife like harbour porpoises, for which the Southern North Seas Special Area of Conservation was created, and the foundations of wind turbines as well as the cables that bring the electricity onto land to distribute to where it will ultimately be used can damage the ecology of the seabed. The first instalment in David Attenborough’s latest BBC series, Wild Isles, showed just how valuable the UK’s coast, islands, and seas are for wildlife, supporting globally important numbers of seabirds and nearly 40% of the world’s population of grey seals.
It also highlighted how sensitive this rich and interconnected ecological web of wildlife is to the impacts of human activities like fishing, which done unsustainably can deplete the stocks of smaller fish like sand eels which are important prey for birds like puffins, little terns, and kittiwakes.
Meanwhile the landfall locations being proposed on the Suffolk Coast for import cables bringing electricity from offshore wind farms and proposed new ‘interconnectors’ and ‘Grid reinforcement’ schemes to move electricity between different parts of the country and between the UK and Europe, risk affecting internationally important wildlife sites and sensitive wetland nature reserves like the RSPB’s North Warren nature reserve, just north of Aldeburgh.
Clearly the picture is a complex one. We need the energy from offshore wind farms if we are to meet future needs, including decarbonising the energy sector, but we also need to ensure that the new infrastructure we build to do this protects wildlife – on land and at sea.
An essential part of achieving this is assessing the environmental impacts of different strategic options for meeting future energy needs and then coordinating the different projects that will create new energy infrastructure so the impacts on wildlife can be minimised as far as possible.
We have been pushing for greater consideration of environmental impacts and coordination between energy NSIPs in Suffolk to do just that. For example, calling on National Grid to carry out a strategic review of the alternative options for the Sea Link and EuroLink offshore cable schemes. Read more here.
Working with the RSPB and Woodland Trust, and with help from members and supporters who wrote to National Grid, we have already prevented the Bramford-Twinstead Grid reinforcement project from destroying ancient woodland in Hintlesham Woods.
Under pressure from local communities, campaigning groups, and MPs, National Grid has agreed to review the alternatives to the currently proposed Grid reinforcements and offshore wind farm connections in East Anglia, including looking at the potential to put more of this infrastructure offshore in the North Sea.
It is crucial that this review assesses the environmental impacts of the different options on land and at sea to ensure we end up with the best solution for wildlife and people.
We'll add more information on NSIPs affecting Suffolk over the coming months.