Mynydd y Gwair Wind Farm - RWE.com

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Impact Source P a g e | 172 Table 9.6 Impact Summary – Non-avian Receptors (operational Phase) Receptor OPERATIONAL PHASE Collision with wind turbines Disturbance (from presence of turbines and periodic maintenance activity) Bats Badgers, brown hare Value District/Parish Immediate local Sensitivity (to impact source) Low Low Predicted Effect Due to low levels of site use by bats, and the flight habits of the species involved, any collisions likely to be very rare and not significant in terms of local population levels and background mortality rates. Minor magnitude effect on badgers. No significant effect on brown hare or any other fauna Significance of Effect without Mitigation Mitigation / compensation Mynydd y Gwair Wind Farm Residual Impact Confidence Level Not significant None required. Not significant. Near-certain. Not significant Minimum 30m stand-off from badger setts employed Not significant Near certain
P a g e | 173 Cumulative Impacts Mynydd y Gwair Wind Farm 9.7.13 The proposed wind farm at Mynydd y Gwair is understood to be the first such proposal of its scale for the City and County of Swansea. As such, it is not possible to consider cumulative impacts at the County level simply by reference to other wind farm projects within the same administrative area. 9.7.14 However, a wind farm is under construction to the north of the site on land at Mynydd y Betws, over the County boundary in Camarthenshire. The location of this wind farm relative to Mynydd y Gwair is shown at Figure 6.9 of this ES. 9.7.15 In order to assess the cumulative effect of these two proposed wind farms and the significance of any such effects, the ES for the Mynydd y Betws proposal was obtained and reviewed. 9.7.16 The Mynydd y Betws site is essentially a similar area of upland, although with more varied topography and a preponderance of north-west facing slopes. The uniformity of habitats that is such a striking characteristic of Mynydd y Gwair is also less apparent at Mynydd y Betws, which appears to contain a more diverse suite of vegetation types including both wet and dry heath together with blanket bog. 9.7.17 The extent of likely habitat loss or disruption proposed at the Mynydd y Betws site appears broadly comparable to that at Mynydd y Gwair. Relative to habitat features of interest, there are however subtle differences in the siting of the turbines and (in particular) the access track network, and these suggest that impacts on habitats and vegetation of marginally more value are likely at Mynydd y Betws, in large part due to stream crossings, the excavation of borrow pits for construction and less intensive efforts to avoid deeper peat deposits. At Mynydd y Gwair careful access track design has enabled any new stream crossings to be avoided and borrow pits are also not proposed. 9.7.18 However, in common with wind farm sites generally, the extent of habitat loss likely to arise from the proposed Mynydd y Betws wind farm is relatively modest, and in combination with such effects at Mynydd y Gwair, the cumulative effect is not considered to be significant at any geographical level above the immediate context of the two sites. 9.7.19 Impacts on (non-avian) protected fauna at Mynydd y Betws also appear to be minimal, although no bat survey work was carried out at that site in line with scoping responses from CCW. 9.7.20 The cumulative effect of both wind farms on birds is assessed in Chapter 10 (Avian Ecology). Impact Summary 9.7.21 The wind farm scheme represents the culmination of an iterative process of site selection and design which, over time, has seen a significant contraction in both the extent of the development area and number of turbines proposed within it. The process has seen a corresponding reduction in the inherent scope for ecological effects, with the current scheme the least likely to give rise to significant impacts. 9.7.22 Informing that process has been a wealth of ecological information from studies in and around the wind farm site since 2004. A very high level of understanding of baseline conditions has
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Page 3 and 4: P a g e | 131 shown on Figure 9.1.
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