Environmental Impact Study of two Offshore Wind Farms

Financial Insurance Company GmbH is planning the two offshore wind farms “Baltic Eagle” and “Ostseeschatz” in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the German Baltic Sea north-west of Cape Arkona. The wind farms will contain a total of 122 wind turbines. Pursuant to the Offshore Installations Ordinance a plan approval procedure has to be to carried out containing a comprehensive environmental impact assessment to rule out threats to the marine environment. The approving authority is the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH). The OECOS GmbH carried out a wide variety of specific on-site examinations in accordance with the standard investigation concept (StUK 3) of the BSH. The majority of these basic recordings refer to marine birds, migratory birds and marine mammal observations. Sub-studies for fish and benthic communities were carried out by affiliated subcontractors. The large amount of collected data from baseline surveys served as a good basis for the environmental impact study and the FFH compatibility tests that were prepared by OECOS GmbH.