The first six stages of the Dogger Bank Zone comprises of up to six 1.2GW offshore wind plants – Dogger Bank Creyke Beck A and B, Dogger Bank Teeside A and B and C and D, off England’s Yorkshire coast.
Lying 125-290 kilometres offshore, the Dogger Bank zone is 8,660 square kilometres.
Brown & May Marine, Jubilee Fishing Company and Precision Marine Survey has carried out the work on the £60m four-year survey.
This has comprised ornithological, marine mammal, geotechnical, geophysical, benthic (flora and fauna on the sea bottom) and fish ecology surveys.
The ornithology and marine mammal surveys consisted of almost four years of boat-based surveys by Gardline Environmental.
Aerial bird surveys were carried out by HiDef Aerial Surveying using a bank of four digital video cameras attached to the aircraft.
The geophysical surveys covered more 4,700 square kilometres and geotechnical work included 84 boreholes and 174 cone penetration tests.
Fish ecology surveys acquired more than 850 samples and nearly 300 samples from the project cable corridors from the Dogger Bank Zone to the UK shore.
Benthic surveys carried out by contractors, including Fugro EMU and Titan Environmental Surveys, comprised 373 fauna sampling sites and 72 chemical sampling sites.
Lee Clarke Forewind general manager said this is largest body of work of its kind undertaken for an offshore wind energy development.
The data gathered will inform the environmental impact assessments for the three stages of the zone's development.
Dogger Bank Creyke Beck is now in the pre-examination phase with the Planning Inspectorate.
The final consultation phase for its second stage of development – Dogger Bank Teesside A & B – is due to start on 4 November 2013.
Forewind consortium's partners are German electric company RWE, Scottish utility SSE, and Norwegian companies Statoil and Statkraft.
